Liverpool beat Girona to maintain perfect Champions League start

Liverpool beat La Liga side Girona 1-0 in Matchday 6 of the Champions League on Tuesday night at the Montilivi Stadium, maintaining their perfect start in the 2024-25 European campaign.

Goalless after an end-to-end first half, the Reds finally broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute through Mohamed Salah, who converted from the spot after Girona’s Donny van de Beek fouled Luis Diaz inside the box.

Despite playing on hostile ground, Arne Slot’s men were able to hold their nerve and seal the three points.

Scoring a landmark 50th goal in the Champions League, Salah’s strike propelled Liverpool to their 150th victory in the European Cup.

Part of their victory could also be attributed to Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who made his first start since sustaining a hamstring injury during an English Premier League match in early October.

Despite securing maximum points in Spain, Slot was far from happy with the performance.

“I’m really pleased with the [first] five games the way we played, I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight,” the Liverpool manager said after the game.

“If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football, knows how to bring the ball out from the back, like Manchester City or Real Madrid, then you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.

“But if every time you are waiting a few seconds before you press, and if you do press and you are so easily outplayed, then this team can cause you a lot of problems.”

Top of the Champions League table after winning their first six games, Liverpool need only one point from their final two league-phase matches against Lille and PSV Eindhoven to guarantee their place in the last 16.

Liverpool will return to EPL action on Saturday at Anfield, where online bookmakers have the league leaders as -294.12 favourites to beat Fulham (+750).

Meanwhile, Girona will be on the road in La Liga this weekend, and top sports betting sites are listing the Catalonian side as +250 outsiders to beat Mallorca (+136).

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