Liverpool fans survived a scare in Milan to win their first UEFA Champions League game of the season on Tuesday night after a hiccup in their Premier League campaign over the weekend.
Former Chelsea man Christian Pulisic opened the scoring in the third minute to raise the hopes of the San Siro fans. However, Arne Slot’s team rallied to a comeback win in the game, scoring two goals in the first half and one in the second to win the one-legged tie by three goals to one.
Speaking on his team’s first 20 minutes when they were overrun by the hosts, Slot said: “It sounds a bit weird if you play three, four, five minutes and we already conceded one chance, which was offside, and then afterwards you concede a goal [and] that I’m going to tell you now that we didn’t even start bad.
“I think we took control of the game from the start. But in the first five minutes we also lost the ball from two choices that were not the best to make and then they could counter-attack us. Afterwards we dominated possession even more and that didn’t lead to counter-attacks from them.
“Although it sounds weird to say that we started well if you concede two chances, but we took control of the ball from the start of the game. Except from the first five minutes where they had two counter-attacks, I think we dominated possession and created chances as well.”
Those 20-something minutes seemed to have rattled the players themselves, but Slot, who was celebrating his birthday, took home three points for the league in their race to a top 8 finish. He will be buoyed for their Premier League outing against AFC Bournemouth at the weekend and hope that the Cherries do not spring a surprise like Nottingham Forest did last time around.
Meanwhile, the club is already planning their winter transfer window after a lacklustre summer transfer window.
The names are being kept close to their chests but sources claim that a defensive midfielder and a left-sided centreback are being prospected. The defensive midfield signing could mean the end of Ryan Gravenberch’s run in the team and a possible exit for Wataru Endo. On the other hand, the left-sided centre-back will come in as a cover for club captain Virgil Van Dijk, 33, who is also in the final year of his contract and is not in talks to renew.
