Liverpool advanced to the Champions League knockout rounds with a comfortable 3-0 win against Ajax at the Johann Cruyff Arena this evening.
Ajax had controlled the early minutes by consistently finding holes behind Liverpool’s full-backs, with Dusan Tadic wasting the hosts’ greatest chance when blazing straight at Trent Alexander-Arnold from 12 yards after Brian Brobbey’s cutback.
After surviving an early storm from the hosts, Mohamed Salah broke the deadlock with three minutes remaining in the first half by latching onto Jordan Henderson’s exquisite through pass with the outside of his foot, before gently chipping the onrushing Remko Pasveer.
Two minutes later, Darwin Nunez squandered an opportunity to extend the advantage for the visitors after Roberto Firmino had selflessly squared the ball following an attack from Andrew Robertson.
However, four minutes after the interval, the Scotland left-outswinging back’s corner found Nunez, who made amends for his earlier gaffe with a thundering header into the bottom corner, thus ending any possible Ajax comeback.
In the 52nd minute, Salah’s wonderfully weighted slide-rule pass found Harvey Elliott’s forwards run into the space left by the Egyptian winger, with Elliott scoring for the second consecutive European encounter by blasting the ball into the roof of the nett with his weaker right foot.
A big win in Amsterdam 🤩 pic.twitter.com/CfvkLWrcHI
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 26, 2022
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Liverpool will now participate in the Champions League knockout rounds for the sixth consecutive season under Jurgen Klopp, albeit they will need to defeat Napoli by three or more goals at Anfield next week to vault the Serie A leaders into first place in Group A after being thrashed 4-1 by them on matchday one.
Ajax, however, will almost likely be relegated to the Europa League after defeating bottom-of-the-table Rangers 4-0 in the comparable tie.
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