Important victory for Jürgen Klopp, bitter defeat for Robert Lewandowski: After problems in the Premier League, the Liverpool FC team manager found his way back to success in the Champions League against Glasgow Rangers.
FC Barcelona, on the other hand, suffered their second bankruptcy in the group stage at Inter Milan, qualifying for the round of 16 is anything but a sure-fire success.
Trent Alexander-Arnold scored the opening goal in Liverpool’s 2-0 (1-0) win in the seventh minute, before Mohamed Salah (53′) made the final score with a penalty kick. The success improved the Reds in Group A from third to second place in the table.
Exactly the opposite happened for Barca in Group B, the Catalans swapped second and third place with Inter. Former Leverkusen player Hakan Calhanoglu (45+2) scored the deserved 1-0 (1-0) win for the Italians. The former Bayern star Robert Lewandowski was rarely able to put himself in the limelight and remained goalless.
SSC Napoli and, surprisingly, FC Brugge also made great strides towards group victory. The Italians landed a clear 6:1 (3:1) triumph at Ajax Amsterdam and the Belgian champions also achieved their third win with 2:0 (1:0) against Atlético Madrid in the third game. For the Dutch it was the heaviest European defeat in club history.
Ajax goes under after taking the lead
For the Flemish, Kamal Sowah, who scored in the 36th minute, and Ferran Jutgla (62nd) were the match winners. Giacomo Raspadori (18th and 47th) was twice successful for Naples, Giovanni di Lorenzo (33rd), Piotr Zielinski (45th), Kvicha Kvaratskhelia (63rd) and Giovanni Simeone (81st) made the victory perfect. The short-term Ajax lead was due to Mohammed Kudus (9th).
France’s runners-up Olympique Marseille had already clinched their first win early in the evening after two defeats at the start. The team of former Schalke player Amine Harit beat Sporting Lisbon, who had previously won twice, 4-1 (3-1).
The hosts’ success was aided by a 63-minute manpower after a red card against Lisbon goalkeeper Antonio Adan for an emergency brake. The goals for “OM” were scored by Alexis Sanchez (13′), Harit (16′), Leonardo Balerdi (28′) and Chancel Mbemba (84′), Trincao had given the Portuguese the lead after just 51 seconds.