Match report: Donny van de Beek is given a penalty for a foul on Luis Diaz, and Mohamed Salah’s penalty keeps Liverpool’s perfect start to the new Champions League format. This is the second time in Liverpool’s history that they have won their first six games of a European campaign.
Mohamed Salah’s VAR-awarded penalty kick helped Liverpool defeat Girona 1-0 at the Municipal de Montilivi, securing their spot in the Champions League round of 16.
As a result, Liverpool had won their first six games of a European campaign for just the second time in the club’s history. For just the third time in 21 games under the Dutch manager, Arne Slot’s team lost their most recent match against Newcastle.
They knew going into Girona that another victory would put them one step closer to being one of the seeded clubs in the last-16 draw. Only when VAR stepped in to stop Donny van de Beek from fouling Luis Diaz inside the area did they solidify their top spot in the standings.
To keep Liverpool flawless, Salah maintained his cool and fired his spot-kick beyond Paulo Gazzaniga
With Thierry Henry (51) and Thomas Muller (54) now in his sights, the Egypt international surpassed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kylian Mbappe to become the eleventh player to reach 50 Champions League goals.
After missing from the penalty spot against Real Madrid two weeks prior, he made no mistakes this time when he was given the chance in the 63rd minute to increase his remarkable record of scoring in 11 of his previous 16 games.
The Premier League leaders have so far put on a rather plodding display, with Alisson making excellent stops to keep out Bryan Gil and Arnaut Danjuma upon his comeback.
Depending on other outcomes in matchweek six, Liverpool may already have enough points to secure a top-eight finish, since 20 of their past 23 goals have now come after the break.
Slot’s team can mathematically guarantee a last-16 matchup with a team that has advanced through the play-offs when they play Lille at home in January, marking their return to European competition.
Girona, however, is facing elimination after suffering their fifth loss in their first six games.
Slot has the luxury of rotating in Liverpool’s next two league-phase games as a result of this outcome. As they try to battle on all fronts, don’t undervalue the utility of it.
Oriol Romeu, a former midfielder for Southampton and Chelsea, acknowledged that Girona needed to exert every effort to disrupt Liverpool’s flow. The home team created multiple chances to pull off an unexpected win.
The Reds haven’t kept a clean sheet in this competition since 2005, but Brazilian international Alisson helped them do it for the seventh time in a row. The 32-year-old missed 11 games due to a hamstring issue that had kept him out since October.
Caoimhin Kelleher has preserved five clean sheets while he has been out, notably against Real Madrid and Manchester City. However, on Wednesday, he made his first significant mistake at Newcastle, when his late mistake allowed the home team to steal a 3–3 draw.
Alisson, however, possesses that unique quality. On a night when the people in front of him weren’t performing at their best, he repeatedly displayed that to irritate Danjuma.
They were disappointed by Girona’s final product, but during those high-quality minutes, Alisson was the one who made sure Catalonia wouldn’t have any disruptions.
“Alisson definitely didn’t look like he’d been out for two months,” Slot stated. “I told the players that since they allowed him to make so many saves, perhaps they wanted to see how prepared he was. However, he demonstrated why I constantly think he’s our best player.
Gazzaniga twice denied Uruguayan international Darwin Nunez, who has only scored once in his last ten games. However, the Uruguayan had another of those all too familiar frustrating performances, as his fluffed header from Dominik Szoboszlai’s hanging cross prevented Salah and Curtis Jones from taking advantage.
However, the home team remained unfazed and would have taken the lead if it weren’t for Alisson and Daley Blind’s defensive lapses.
The former defender for Manchester United, Ajax, and Bayern Munich appeared to have missed Miguel Gutierrez’s cross into the six-yard area, as his last goal was eleven months ago.
Alisson threw himself to his right to block Yaser Asprilla’s long-range effort, knocked away a Gutierrez shot, and stopped Alejandro Frances’ follow-up attempt. After the restart, Liverpool came back and won.
Since Girona is such a great squad and deserves far more than the three points they currently have, I almost feel terrible for them. We had an excellent goalie today, but they had an extremely solid game plan.
“I kept Darwin on the pitch for a considerable amount of time because he needed a goal, so I would have delighted to see him score. Although he posed a threat, you always wonder if a striker’s lack of goals was due to poor performance or a lack of 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 has won all six of their UEFA Champions League games so far this season. The Reds have only had a longer winning streak in the UEFA Champions League and European Cup between September 2021 and February 2022 (7 games).
Liverpool has now maintained five straight clean sheets in the UEFA Champions League and European Cup for the third time; they did so in September–December 2005 and September 1983–March 1984.
Four of Girona’s six UEFA Champions League games this season have ended without a goal (W1 L5), but their non-penalty expected goals total of 1.02 is third-highest in the competition, only surpassed by their games against Sturm Graz in November (1.67), and Feyenoord in October (1.52).
After winning six straight away games in May 2022 and five games in September 1984, Liverpool has now won five straight away games in important European tournaments for the third time in their history.
