Liverpool all but qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League after Mohamed Salah’s VAR-awarded penalty secured a narrow 1-0 win over Girona at the Municipal de Montilivi.
The result means that for only the second time in the club’s history, Liverpool have won their opening six matches of a European campaign. In Liverpool’s last outing against Newcastle, Arne Slot’s side failed to win for only the third time in 21 matches under the Dutchman.
They arrived in Girona knowing another win would move them ever closer to securing a place in the last-16 draw as one of the seeded teams. They cemented their position at the top of the standings after Donny van de Beek was penalised for a foul on Luis Diaz inside the box only after VAR intervened.
No player has been involved in more goals in Europe’s big five leagues this season across all competitions than Mohamed Salah (28 – 16 goals, 12 assists)
Salah kept his composure to convert his spot-kick past Paulo Gazzaniga to keep Liverpool perfect.
The Egypt international became the 11th man to reach 50 Champions League goals, overtaking Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kylian Mbappe with Thierry Henry (51) and Thomas Muller (54) now in his sights.
Having missed from the spot a fortnight ago against Real Madrid, there was no mistake this time when presented with the opportunity in the 63rd minute to extend an impressive record of scoring in 11 of his last 16 matches.
It had up to that point been a somewhat laboured performance from the Premier League leaders with Alisson making good saves to deny Bryan Gil and Arnaut Danjuma on his return to the side.
Twenty of Liverpool’s last 23 goals have now come after the break, and they may already have enough points to guarantee a top-eight finish – depending on other results in matchweek six.
Slot’s side return to European action in January at home to Lille, when they can mathematically secure a last-16 tie against a side to have come through the play-offs.
Meanwhile, Girona are staring at the prospect of elimination following a fifth defeat in their opening six games.
Why Alisson’s return matters
Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson celebrates after their win
This result affords Slot the of luxury of being able to rotate in Liverpool’s final two league-phase games. Don’t underestimate the benefit of that as they attempt to fight on all fronts.
Former Southampton and Chelsea midfielder Oriol Romeu admitted Girona had to do their best to knock Liverpool out of their rhythm – and the hosts carved out several opportunities to stage a shock victory.
Brazilian international Alisson helped the Reds to a fifth successive clean sheet in this competition, something they last achieved back in 2005. The 32-year-old had been sidelined since October with a hamstring problem which saw him miss 11 matches.
In his absence Caoimhin Kelleher has kept five clean sheets, including against Real Madrid and Manchester City, but made his first real error at Newcastle on Wednesday, with his late misjudgement allowing the hosts to snatch a 3-3 draw.
Salah has now scored in four successive away starts in Liverpool for all competitions for the first time since December 2022
But Alisson has that extra quality. He showed that to frustrate Danjuma on more than one occasion on a night when those in front of him weren’t at their best.
Girona’s end product let them down, but when there were those moments of quality, it was Alisson who stood tall to ensure there would be no hiccups in Catalonia.
“Alisson definitely didn’t look like he’d been out for two months,” said Slot. “I joked with the players that maybe they wanted to see how ready he was because they let him make so many saves. But he showed why I always say that he’s our number one.”
Darwin Nunez, who has only one goal in his last 10 appearances, was twice denied by Gazzaniga but the Uruguay international had another of those now all-too-common frustrating performances with his fluffed header from Dominik Szoboszlai’s hanging cross meaning the supporting Curtis Jones and Salah were unable to profit.
Luis Diaz forced the penalty in the second half
But the hosts were undeterred and would have been ahead had it not been for Alisson and Daley Blind’s lack of composure in front of goal.
The ex-Manchester United, Ajax and Bayern Munich defender’s last goal was 11 months ago and that looked evident from his swish-and-miss at Miguel Gutierrez’s cross into the six-yard area.
Alisson saved Alejandro Frances’ follow-up attempt, batted away a Gutierrez shot, flung himself to his right to keep out Yaser Asprilla’s long-range drive. Liverpool rallied after the restart, and won.
Slot: Darwin needs a goal
Liverpool boss Arne Slot:
“I almost feel really sorry for Girona, they are such a high-quality team and they deserve much more than three points that they have so far. They had a really good game plan today but we had a really good goalkeeper.
“I would have loved to have seen Darwin score because he needs a goal and that’s why I kept him on the pitch for quite a long time. He was a threat but when a striker doesn’t score you’re always asking yourself whether it’s a not good play or because of lacking confidence.
“Girona lost a lot of quality in the summer so to play like they do and give us, Feyenoord and PSV so much difficulty says a huge amount about them.”
Liverpool firing on all cylinders – Opta stats
Arne Slot has won his first six European games as Liverpool boss
- Liverpool have won all six of their games in the UEFA Champions League this season; across both the UEFA Champions League and European Cup, only between September 2021 and February 2022 have the Reds enjoyed a longer winning run across the competition (7 games).
- This is the third time Liverpool have kept five successive clean sheets across both the UEFA Champions League and European Cup, previously doing so in September – December 2005 and September 1983 – March 1984.
- Girona have failed to score in four of their six UEFA Champions League matches this season (W1 L5), though their 1.02 non-penalty expected goals total is their third-highest in a game in the competition this season, behind only their matches vs Sturm Graz in November (1.67) and Feyenoord in October (1.52).
- In major European competitions, Liverpool have won five successive away games for the third time in their history after May 2022 (6 games) and September 1984 (5 games).
