Liverpool’s first Champions League game of the season was a humdinger as we beat Paris Saint-Germain with a stoppage-time goal from Roberto Firmino.
The Brazilian came on as a substitute and had seen PSG come back from being 2-0 down in the first half. Liverpool battered the away side at Anfield as Daniel Sturridge opened the scoring.
James Milner then converted a penalty won by Georginio Wijnaldum. But Thomas Meunier scored a brilliant volley to cut the deficit and Kylian Mbappe levelled the scores in the 83rd minute.
However, Firmino had the last laugh as he rifled into the bottom corner and came out with a new celebration.
Liverpool were the better side in the game and here are five talking points from the game.
1) Liverpool loving European return
The Reds seem to be a different beast in Europe under Jurgen Klopp. Prior to the German’s arrival, Brendan Rodgers’ side often produced limp displays that saw us missing out on a lot.
Now, however, Liverpool have been scoring for fun since last season. The Reds have now racked up 43 goals since the previous campaign.
43 – Since the start of last season, Liverpool have scored 43 Champions League goals; 10 more than any other team in the competition in this period. Juggernaut. #LIVPSG pic.twitter.com/FZfqfTFXjZ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 18, 2018
We did play some easy teams in the group last season but scoring three against the Parisians is never easy.
We had huge wins over Porto away and against Roma at home and there is no doubt we are back in the big time.
Liverpool could have scored more but some quality keeping from Alphonse Areola kept the away side in the first half.
2) Daniel Sturridge is back
Daniel Sturridge started his first Champions League game since March 2012, a time span of 2,379 days.
2379 – Daniel Sturridge is set to start a Champions League game for the first time since March 2012 vs Napoli – 2379 days ago. Opportunity. #LFCPSG pic.twitter.com/qTyNCkLUv7
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 18, 2018
The Englishman was placed into possibly the biggest game of the season, without having started any of our Premier League games and he did a bang up job.
The striker opened the scoring in the game and had another quality chance but couldn’t head the ball into the goal.
Sturridge will have a huge part to play whenever Firmino has to be rested this season. If the Englishman stays sharp and fit, we could see a lot of goals from the 29-year-old.
3) Klopp gets more out of players than Tuchel
Liverpool seemed ready for the clash and every player played to their potential, as we made PSG look like amateurs at the start of the game.
Klopp is brilliant when it comes to extracting the best from his players and it showed as Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum ran rings around the PSG midfield.
Thomas Tuchel took over from Klopp at Borussia Dortmund but he clearly failed to get the best out of his French side at Anfield.
The German has only taken over this season and he will need time to understand the team. But this was a huge game for both clubs and the least PSG could have done is held on for the 2-2 draw.
4) Another Milner masterclass
We seem to be writing a special piece on Milner every match day as the Englishman continues to produce quality.
One moment of the match saw him crunch into Neymar, leaving the Brazilian sprawling on the sideline as we looked to attack the French side.
The 32-year-old is playing like a 20-year-old and we can only hope he continues playing in the same manner for the rest of the season.
Milner also scored the important second goal of the game and has been a mainstay for the side since the start of the season.
Six wins, six Milner-esque performances!
5) Salah’s struggles continue
Bottle throwing incident aside, Salah again underperformed and almost cost us the win. The Egyptian gave the ball away, leading to Mbappe’s equalizer. However, he was saved due to Firmino’s goal.
The former Roma man hasn’t looked great and he might need more rest to get back to his best. His finishing still needs work and he looked exhausted during the last quarter of the game.
Salah was replaced by Xherdan Shaqiri in the second half but Klopp must have a word with the 25-year-old as we need him to be firing.
Read more: Chelsea superstar will think about joining Liverpool after being requested by fan
Mane troubled the PSG defence, Firmino got the goal but Salah didn’t do much after the initial 30-minute period.
