Liverpool vs Porto result: Naby Keita and Roberto Firmino secure victory for calm and collected Reds
Liverpool 2-0 Porto: Jurgen Klopp's side will now switch focus back to the title race with Chelsea visiting Anfield this weekend
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Your support makes all the difference.There is still a sense of preoccupation around Anfield on these European nights, as though attentions are focussed elsewhere this year, and yet with this 2-0 victory over Porto, Liverpool have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals.
Victory was always expected against a team that Jurgen Klopp’s side beat 5-0 across two legs in this competition last season. It was never in doubt once Naby Keita’s deflected opening goal rose into top right-hand corner. Roberto Firmino soon followed with a second.
There is still work to do in this tie. Liverpool will travel to the north of Portugal next week aiming to protect this lead against an attack which threatened in brief fleeting moments. If not for the profligacy of Moussa Marega, Porto may have scored their away goal.
Yet after having life and death against Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton of late, this was far more a sedate evening’s work for Klopp’s side and another step towards this team crowning their fine season with a major trophy, if not two.
With nine games remaining in their 2018-19 campaign, and while there is much talk in Manchester of an unprecedented quadruple, Liverpool could yet lift both the domestic league title and the European Cup - a feat only previously managed four times by English teams.
After the late-shows of recent weeks, Klopp’s side made a quick start this time. The breakthrough arrived after just five minutes. It was Keita’s second goal in five days, having waited 237 to score his first in Liverpool colours.
This was a touch more fortunate than the equaliser at Southampton, with a deflection off the diving Oliver Torres taking his shot from the edge of the area past Iker Casillas, but it was hard to begrudge Keita such fortune after a testing first season on Merseyside.
And though already a goal up, Liverpool’s attack did not relent. Firmino had an effort blocked seconds after the restart. Salah dragged an untidy finish wide when one-on-one some time later, having been played in behind by a wayward back pass by Otavio.
A second seemed inevitable and arrived on a platter for Firmino, who tapped in at the far post after Jordan Henderson’s intelligent pass through the inside-right channel had allowed Trent Alexander-Arnold to square.
And yet, for a side that had failed to win any of their last 12 knockout ties away from home in the Champions League, Porto were by no means wilting under Anfield’s lights and still carried a considerable threat on the counter-attack.
A leggy Dejan Lovren, starting for the first time since January, was lucky not to have his poor positioning exposed by the movement of Moussa Marega, who slipped through on goal and drove Porto’s best chance of the half straight at Alisson.
In the scramble for possession that immediately followed, the Liverpool goalkeeper appeared to bat the ball against Alexander-Arnold’s arm. No penalty, said VAR, but Marega went close from the resulting corner, losing his marker but firing into Alisson again.
It was Liverpool’s turn to appeal for video consultation immediately after the break when Sadio Mané’s strike was ruled out for a marginal offside, connecting with Jordan Henderson’s cross. Antonio Mateu Lopez, the referee, was unmoved.
However, unlike in the closing stages of the first half, a third goal was no longer needed to settle nerves. What little presence and danger Porto had shown in opposition territory gradually wilted away, as did the intensity seen at the start of the game.
While Liverpool had every right to step off the gas with Chelsea visiting Anfield on Sunday, more was expected of Porto. Sergio Conceicao’s side were rapidly running out of time to score the away goal which would give them a fair chance of turning this last-eight tie around.
This reality began to dawn on them and, once again, opportunities came Marega’s way. He wasted both, however. The first was blazed over the crossbar after Real Madrid-bound Eder Militao’s ball out of the back. A second, minutes later, was dragged wide of Alisson’s far post.
The visitors grew increasingly desperate as the minutes dragged by. Liverpool looked increasingly calm and collected, assured of taking a two-goal lead to Portugal, where nothing less than progression will be expected.
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