Liverpool 2 Bologna 0: Mac Allister and Salah score to keep up Reds’ 100 per cent Champions League win record
ARNE SLOT made history as Mo Salah hit a brilliant clincher.
Jurgen Klopp’s successor became the first Liverpool manager to win eight of his first nine games in charge.
But while things were flying for the Dutchman at the start – and his side finished up on a high thanks to that 75th-minute Salah special – he also had to squirm through plenty of scary moments.
For after a brilliant, pulsating start the Reds hit the reverse gear that for a long time threatened red faces..
Slot had freted in the build–up, warning his players that “mediocrity was not acceptable.”
And so when they were running rings around Bologna in the first 25 minutes, his warning that the Serie A club were more dangerous than their 13th position in Serie A looked seemed little more than scare-mongering.
Alexis MacAllister’s 11th minute strike said it all about Liverpool’s early dominance and the fluidity of their attacks.
True enough, Thijs Dallinga had found the home net just before but was miles off-side as he struck his shot.
The Argentinian’s first ever Champions League goal was the real deal.
It came as a result of a flowing team move, completed by Salah’s delicious chip and only needed touching into the net from half a yard.
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Darwin Nunez, in for benched Diogo Jota due to a slight foot injury, should have doubled the advantage but as Slot will surely know by now, he’s not the brightest footballer.
Had he arced his run onto Mac Allister’s through – ball his shot would have stood. But, unsurprisingly he ran straight off-side.
Things were just too easy for Slot’s men and the sloppiness he is concerned about began to show in the 19th minute.
Salah’s side-foot into the box was perfection but the Hungarian, not for the first time this season, lost focus or just thought he merely had to go through the motions.
Either way he slid his shot wide before Nunez, this time trying for the spectacular as he so often does, fired straight at goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski.
At this 23rd minute stage, Bologna’s new manager Vincenzo Italiano was going crazy on the touchline.
Liverpool were playing training ground football and looking like world-beaters. Italiano’s team were all over the place.
And then, like they have done repeatedly despite the start that has taken them to the top of the Prem, they switched off.
Suddenly Slot’s worries that might have appeared like picking hairs didn’t seem so unreasonable at all.
Dan Ndoye raided down the left and his 28th-minute shot was deflected off the bar.
The attacker was deemed offside but there was a real lack of cohesion in the rearguard marshalled by skipper Virgil van Dijk.
Alisson spotted it, too, carping at those in front of him to close down better.
Soon after Ndoye was back, Ricardo Orsolini’s downward header causing panic in front of The Kop.
Ndoye fired in a low left–footer. Alisson and his team mates rode their luck as the shot flew off the outside of the goalkeeper right hand post.
Bologna’s players were representing a club that hadn’t been in a top – flight European campaign for 60 years.
And you just knew he was finding this repeat unacceptable.
From the start they looked to have frozen under the weight of that history having managed only an opening 0-0 with Shakhtar Donetsk, who had scored only seven goals in six league games.
But they were now causing panic and the look on Slot’s face as he headed down the tunnel said it all – his side, as they had done in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Wolves, were back in mediocrity mode.
The Italian side kept on keeping on after the break, Alisson furious again that he had to deal with a 20 yarder from Orsolini.
Then Kacper Urabanski lost his head and fired wildly over from a great position.
By the 61st minute Slot knew he needed a change, and Nunez, unsurprisingly, was replaced by Jota – as much for the Portuguese attacker’s work rate in closing down as for his far superior striking abilities.
His entrance stabilised the side, cohesion returned and finally the job got done.
Unsurprisingly Salah was the one tie the game up as he became the first Liverpool player to score in five successive Champions League home games.
The Bologna defenders not only backed off, they gave him space to move onto his left foot.
And as Anfield’s Egyptian king moved into the box there was only ever going to be one outcome, his shot curving majestically into the top right corner of Skorupski’s net.