Liverpool vs Bayer Leverkusen LIVE: Champions League result and reaction as Diaz hat-trick gives Reds easy win
Liverpool 4-0 Bayer Leverkusen: The Reds are top of the Champions League after a rout at Anfield
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Your support makes all the difference.Liverpool moved to the top of the Champions League table and kept their European winning streak going with a fine outing against Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield.
Xabi Alonso’s German champions were solid and secure in a tentative first half that lacked quality in front of goal. Luis Diaz found the goalkeeper’s gloves and Jeremie Frimpong had a goal ruled out for offside as the teams traded blows.
The second half was all Liverpool. Three goals, two for Diaz and one for Cody Gakpo ensured they left the field with three points and another notch to Arne Slot’s reputation. Diaz’s first was made by Curtis Jones who slipped a fine pass into the box before Diaz chipped the goalkeeper to open the scoring.
Mo Salah then set up the second with a cross to Gakpo who headed home a few minutes later. That broke Leverkusen’s resistance and the Reds added a late third as Salah found Diaz for his second of the night.
Diaz wasn’t done though. With three minutes of added time, Liverpool countered and Darwin Nunez set Diaz up to complete his hat-trick.
Relive the Champions League action with our live blog below:
Arne Slot’s Liverpool evoke European history with devastatingly effortless display against Leverkusen
Xabi Alonso said he didn’t want to come to Liverpool as tourists and his Bayer Leverkusen certainly leave without any mementoes. Not a point. Not a goal. Not their pride. Not any hold on Luis Diaz, either, who hit a hat-trick. Leverkusen didn’t even see that much of the ball, as Liverpool translated almost 60% possession into a thoroughly convincing 4-0 win. It was fitting of a team first in this expanded table.
For all the inevitable focus on a former Liverpool Champions League winner who knew how to play a pass - and suffered a reckoning here - wins like this are maybe the moment when it’s worth going even further back into the club’s European history. There is a genuinely noteworthy reference, that actually came the last time Liverpool saw a talismanic and charismatic figurehead replaced by a more placid but possibly more calculating character.
Arne Slot’s Liverpool evoke European history with devastatingly effortless display
Liverpool 4-0 Bayer Leverkusen: Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as the Reds ran riot against the Bundesliga champions in a clinical second half performance
Liverpool’s hat-trick hero Luis Diaz speaking to Amazon Prime:
“The most important thing is the three points in this edition of the Champions League so we can keep progressing in the competition.
“Things have gone so well with the new manager, it wasn’t easy for him to come in and fill Jurgen Klopp’s shoes. Hopefully, we’ll have something to show for it at the end of the season.
“We have top-quality players all over the pitch and I really enjoyed playing in that position today. I’m just happy to be on the pitch.
“I need to go and find that ball now because I need to keep it somewhere special at home.”
Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso speaking to Amazon Prime:
“I think that in the first half, we were pretty good. Second half, they were not so good and we weren’t able to keep the ball well or find the positions. Our intensity in the defence got lower and they weren’t squeezing much. The second goal was hard for us. The result is painful, the performance is more painful.
“It can happen that you come to Anfield and lose. To lose 4-0 is not nice. They are a top, top team and they punished us. It was a pity we couldn’t hold 1-0 for 15 to 20 minutes. They did it against Brighton, they did it against us.
“We were ready to come here and give our best. We did okay for some part but the game changed in 20 minutes. Liverpool are strong. We lacked some power and consistency. Defeat, accept it, congratulate Liverpool and move on.
“I will try to separate the game and the pain from the result to the feelings of coming back and having love. I’m really thankful to have that reception.
“It’s early to tell but I can see that Liverpool have a very good balance, a very complete team. They work the 11 players and they have the power to hold a clean sheet which is important in the Champions League. In the Premier League, let’s see. It’s early to tell but it’s looking good.”
Four in a row
Liverpool have won all four of their Champions League games under Arne Slot. It’s only the second time that they have won all four opening games in a single season (also in 2021-22 under Jürgen Klopp when they won their first seven).
Salah the assist king
Mohamed Salah has provided four assists in the Champions League this season – more than any other player. It’s also his joint-highest number of assists in a single Champions League campaign after just four games (also four in 2017/18 in 13 matches).
Record for Diaz
Luis Diaz is only the second Colombian player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League, after Faustino Asprilla for Newcastle vs Barcelona in September 1997
Liverpool boss on Kelleher’s future:
“That’s in the future. Jaros is doing well and we have another goalkeeper as well. What I like about today is we only needed him five minutes from the end. We’re hard to play through but sometimes they play through the press. I like the work rate of the players.”
Slot on Van Dijk:
“Virgil sometimes gets criticised about not stepping into the midfield. Now I would advise these people to watch this game today because he was constantly on the front foot.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slot speaking to Amazon Prime:
“I don’t know if it was that much to do with intensity but we took more risk. They overloaded the midfield a lot and we adjusted a half-tine and took the risk to play one v one all over. We had better chances in the first half and they weren’t a goal threat.
“As much as this time, how good they are in Europe, sometimes a strong target man is better than someone a bit faster. Curtis Jones did an incredible pass and then you have someone with the pace of Lucho to finish it off. The pass was as good as the goal in my opinion.
“You don’t look ahead as a manager at the next three months. You’re always one game at a time. We’ve got Aston Villa on Saturday, another tough game.”
FT Liverpool 4-0 Leverkusen
Liverpool now top the Champions League table with a perfect 12 points from their four matches. Their next fixture is against Real Madrid who were beaten this evening 3-1 by AC Milan.
A win for the Reds there and they’ll be pretty much through to the last-16.
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