Doug McIntyre
Football journalist
Liverpool are on the point of League of Champions knockout stage after claiming a sixth consecutive first spherical win by beating Girona 1-0 in Spain on Tuesday.
Mohamed Salah’s torrid kind for the Reds continued, with the Egyptian star netting the one objective from the penalty spot within the second half.
Elsewhere in Europe, Real Madrid claimed a vital win, Bayern Munich got here again to beat Shakhtar Donetsk and Aston Villa and Brest’s Cinderella seasons continued.
Here are three fast recaps after Tuesday’s motion.
Salah nonetheless within the rescue whereas the Reds stay good
With six wins from six Champions League matches to this point, top-placed Liverpool are a positive shot into the final 16 with two qualifying rounds remaining. The three factors earned on Tuesday, nonetheless, had been exhausting gained. Girona followers will probably be questioning in the event that they had been earned.
This was one of many least convincing performances of Arne Slot’s workforce all season. It took a video assessment to ship Salah to the spot after a foul on Luis Diaz within the penalty space that wasn’t initially known as.
Salah made no errors from 12 yards. Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker – enjoying his first recreation after lacking two months with a hamstring damage – made 5 saves to protect the clear sheet and safe the consequence, though the Reds had been fortunate on this one.
Not for the primary time just lately, Liverpool additionally rode Salah. The objective was the 32-year-old’s sixteenth in 22 appearances in all competitions in 2024-25 and his third in as many matches. It’s no shock that the Reds have lastly supplied the membership legend a brand new contract in current days. With the Slots aiming for a Champions League-Premier League double this spring, they will hardly afford to depart their greatest participant’s future up within the wind for for much longer.
Mbappé scores, insults his ankle as Real Madrid beats Atalanta
The final time we noticed Kylian Mbappé within the Champions League, the French famous person was strolling dejectedly in the direction of the Anfield tunnel, the place he had simply missed a penalty in Real’s 2-0 defeat towards Liverpool.
It did not take lengthy for Mbappé to show that Tuesday can be totally different. It took the 25-year-old lower than 10 minutes to ship The Whites on the best way to victory in Italy with a violent proper:
The objective, mixed with objectives from Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Jr. within the second half, gave the guests a much-needed 3-2 victory, because the 15-time defending champions entered matchday six with three defeats and simply six factors within the first 5 video games. journeys.
The night was bittersweet, nonetheless, as Mbappé was compelled to depart the match within the thirty sixth minute with an obvious ankle damage. His rollercoaster first season with Real Madrid exhibits no indicators of slowing down.
Villa, Bayern, Brest and Leverkusen prevail
Aston Villa squandered a one-goal lead away to RB Leipzig on two separate events on Tuesday however nonetheless left Germany third within the 36-team desk due to a fortuitous objective from Ross Barkley 5 minutes from time of the match.
The match winner, who improved Villa’s document in soccer’s high membership competitors to 4-1-1, took a depraved deflection earlier than beating Leipzig goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi.
Bayern fell behind towards Shakhtar, however rallied with 5 unanswered objectives within the ultimate 85 minutes to win 5-1 on the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, the place the Ukrainian membership “hosted” the match attributable to ongoing invasion of Russia.
Meanwhile, Brest are three locations forward of fifth-placed Bayern after Tuesday’s 1-0 triumph at PSV Eindhoven. Julien Le Cardinal scored the one objective for the French simply earlier than half-time.
And there was some late drama in Leverkusen, the place Nordi Mukiele’s Ninetieth-minute objective despatched Bayer above Inter, the dropping finalists in 2023. It was the primary objective Inter conceded on this Champions League marketing campaign League.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. He was a workers author at ESPN and Yahoo Sports earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports in 2021 United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups on the FIFA World Cup on 5 continents. Follow him @By Doug McIntyre.
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