Liverpool recorded their second Champions League win of the season in Group A after claiming a 2-0 2 win over Rangers, courtesy of goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah.
Alexander-Arnold put the Reds ahead after seven minutes with a brilliant free-kick, before the advantage was doubled early in the second half through Salah’s converted penalty.
‘The game we wanted to play,’ is how Jürgen Klopp described his side’s win over Rangers at Anfield in on Tuesday night.
In his assessment of the game, he was pleased with the Reds’ all-round performance and was even more delighted with the result.
Klopp pleased with Liverpool’s new ‘structure’
Speaking after the win, Klopp said about the result: “Good game – actually the game we wanted to play. A really good defensive performance in a new structure. Offensively, [we] created an awful lot without using, Rangers’ goalie made a couple of really nice saves and we missed some others.”
“But I liked it a lot. The two goals we scored were really nice. OK, one is a penalty but the move from Lucho for the pen was really good and we played good in these areas. And the free-kick from Trent was outstanding.”
“I said it now to all the others [interviewers], I can say it here again: set-piece goals are actually my favourite goals because you don’t have to wait for VAR, you just can celebrate them. So in the end, I think Rangers came up a little bit but with one situation really where Ali had to make a save, but apart from that, I liked the game a lot.”
Liverpool could have scored more goals but they had a lot of wasted chances. That did not seem to bother Klopp, who was just simply delighted with the result.
He added: “No frustration about that at all. I really didn’t want to sit here now and talk about a 4-0 or whatever. It’s 2-0, top, gives us three points. Let’s keep going.”
Back to domestic action
Liverpool might have returned to winning ways but it doesn’t change the fact that they continue to struggle overall this season. In the Premier League, they find themselves in ninth place after eight games and were held to a 3-3 stalemate with Brighton last weekend, despite coming from two goals down to lead 3-2 at some point.
Up next for the Reds is a rather tricky tie in the form of Arsenal, who are the early pacesetters this season and continue to defy all odds to remain top. Victory against Arsenal, in a fixture they have enjoyed recent success, might set the tone for Liverpool to get their season back on track.
However, dropping further points will only see them go from title challengers to top four hopefuls.
