Will Rooney reports from Anfield.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Full time here at Anfield, Liverpool 2, Lille 1, Liverpool into the last 16 of the Champions League,
00:08extending their perfect record in Europe's elite club competition this season.
00:14They were guaranteed a second spot at least, nearly had that by Barcelona's dramatic late winner Benfica.
00:22Liverpool didn't really have to get out of third gear, in truth it wasn't the best performance,
00:27the first half was a little bit of a humdrum, Lille set out the stall pretty early,
00:33tried to frustrate Liverpool, tried to force Liverpool into mistakes,
00:38but give credit to Arne Slott, he said to his troops that they need to be patient and that they were,
00:46because they didn't really give Lille any chances to hit them on the break.
00:52They were patient throughout and they got the reward in the 34th minute,
00:58when Costa Simacas produced a really good challenge to dispossess Lille and Liverpool launched a counter.
01:05Curtis Jones playing a fantastic through ball into the path of Mo Salah,
01:09who kept us cool and finished nonchalantly.
01:14Just before half time Liverpool had another chance through Salah,
01:18he was set free by Luis Diaz, wriggled away, just put his efforts far side of the post.
01:24Liverpool came out of the blocks quickly in the second half,
01:27Salah had a chance that went just past the post,
01:31Conor Bradley put one over the bar, cross comes shot and Darwin Nunez was saved by the onrushing goalkeeper.
01:38And then Lille were just for ten men, but they hit back, pretty poor defensive for Liverpool,
01:45Conor Bradley got beaten a little bit too easily to the ball and Lille took a shot,
01:51Costa Simacas, it wasn't the best of shots, Costa Simacas decided to try to block it,
01:56maybe Alisson Becher was going to make a comfortable save, probably couldn't take a risk.
02:01But the ball fell to the player you didn't want it to drop to,
02:04Jonathan Davies who's been in rampant form for Lille this season and he finished for the first time.
02:10Effort with Alisson unable to make a save because he was already on the deck,
02:15but five minutes later Liverpool were back in front,
02:18Harvey Elias who came on at half time, made a real impact, got his reward.
02:23Conor headed away by Lille but it fell to Elias on the edge of the box,
02:28he took his chance, took a wicked deflection to be fair,
02:31the effort but he deserved that luck because he made a real impact.
02:36From there Liverpool seeing it out comfortably,
02:39Federico Chiesa who came off the bench had a couple of efforts,
02:42one of which was put on by Darwin Nunes but he was offside.
02:46In the end it was fairly comfortable, a good result for Liverpool,
02:50they managed to rotate players, the only downside was Curtis Jones was forced off at half time with an injury.
02:58That didn't give too much away but Jones tried to continue after receiving treatment
03:03so maybe that isn't too bad for Liverpool.
03:06Overall Liverpool have seven wins from seven in the Champions League
03:10into the last 16 avoiding that play-off round, avoiding two more fixtures,
03:13that's massive for the Reds, especially as they're fighting on four fronts.
03:18Now the attention turns back to the Premier League when they welcome Ipschwitz here on Saturday
03:23which will be a little bit of banana skin but you would back Liverpool to go and get another three points
03:29but they can't be underestimating the Charterboys.
03:32Another European night to celebrate and I'm feeling as Liverpool too, Lille 1.