Liverpool took a large stride towards the knock-out stage of the Champions League with a 4-1 win in Belgium against Genk. For just the 10th time in the club’s illustrious history, the Reds scored four goals having also done so in the previous European match.
And despite Liverpool’s marvellous record in continental competition, they haven’t been up to much on the road at this stage of the Champions League in the last decade. When Rafa’s Reds stumbled past Debrecen 1-0 in November 2009 (in the early days of TTT – here’s the match thread!), who’d have thought the club would only pick up one group stage win away from Anfield in the next 10 years? Yet here we are, with only a win in Maribor between then and now.
Mohamed Salah scored in that game in Slovenia and also this one, but that’s not that surprising. What would be less obvious is that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was also on the score sheet in both matches. The former Arsenal man opened his Liverpool account in Maribor and he did the same for 2019/20 in this match.
He did so inside two minutes, the ninth time the Reds have netted within the opening 120 seconds of a European match. While that shot almost trundled in from outside the box, his second – ensuring his first brace for the club – was rather more special.
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