Jurgen Klopp reserved praise for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after the Liverpool midfielder scored a brace on his return to the Champions League. The England midfielder, who missed virtually all of last season with a serious knee injury, scored the first two in a 4-1 win against Genk – the second a sublime strike off the underside of the crossbar with the outside of his foot – but Klopp felt both the player and the team could have done better. “It was absolutely a great moment for him, but I would say with Ox his performance was exactly the same as the performance of the team – the goals were great but all the rest could have been better,” said Klopp. “That’s how it is, but it’s no problem. The (second) goal was sensational and very important for us. Wonderful.”
Liverpool led 1-0 after a messy first half in which the hosts could have scored three times.
Part of that was due to Klopp fielding an untested midfield of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and Fabinho and also because he was without 50 per cent of his regular back-four with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip absent.
Despite acknowledging that Liverpool “had a lot of good moments” in the game, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah also on the scoresheet, he also pointed out that some of their play was sloppy and the players took some unnecessary risks.
But having got the “job done” and three more points on the board it leaves Liverpool second in Group E behind Napoli, who won 3-2 at Red Bull Salzburg and sit one point ahead of the reigning champions.
Their next game in Europe is the return fixture against Genk at Anfield on Tuesday November 5, while Tottenham are up next n the Premier League on Sunday.
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Genk 1-4 Liverpool
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