Liverpool opened up their defence of their Champions league title with a 2-0 away loss to Napoli. Despite this they remained a popular selection to progress through the group stages, with punters using offers at online-casinos.ng. The other sides in the group included Genk and Red Bull Salzburg. The latter beat Genk 6-2 on matchday one, on their first start in the competition, so were full of confidence going into their away trip to Anfield. Liverpool needed to pick up the maximum points from the game as they could not afford to drop further behind, despite Napoli being held to a 0-0 draw by Genk in the early kick off.
The opening defeat to Napoli meant Liverpool have now lost four consecutive away group games in the competition, with the last victory coming via a 7-0 win against Maribor. However, it has been a completely different story back at Anfield.
Prior to the match, Liverpool were unbeaten at Anfield since the 3-0 loss to Real Madrid back in October of 2014. This meant they were unbeaten in 22 European home matches, winning 16 of them and drawing six. They had also not conceded in their last five home Champions league games. Liverpool had also scored 18 goals in their last five home matches in the Group stages of the competition, winning on each occasion. These statistics all set up for a match that Liverpool were expected to win comfortably.
Mane put Liverpool ahead after just seven minutes as they made a flying start at Anfield. Andy Robertson then scored a second from close range after just 25 minutes. This was his first for the club and he will be hoping for many more in the future. Salah scored a third just 11 minutes later and Liverpool looked to be heading to a resounding victory. However, Hwang Hee-chan drew one back for the visitors in the 39th minute, as Liverpool took a 3-1 lead into half time.
Liverpool started the second half slowly as if they already felt they had won the game. Salzburg had other ideas and picked up a second through a Takumi Minamino goal in the 56 minute. The visitors continued to look a threat whenever they were on the ball as the Liverpool defence began to make errors. Salzburg then drew level on 60 minutes, on what was turning out to be another memorable European night at Anfield.
Liverpool appeared to be heading to further dropped points in this year’s competition before Salah picked up his second goal on the night. This ensured they took the maximum points and enhanced their chances of finishing top of Group E. Next up for Liverpool is a trip to Belgium to face Genk, which is another game Liverpool will start as the overwhelming favourites.