Liverpool struts past Milan in confident Champions league opener

Liverpool’s Dutch midfielder #38 Ryan Gravenberch, Liverpool’s French defender #05 Ibrahima Konate and Liverpool’s Dutch defender #04 Virgil van Dijk celebrate after winning the UEFA Champions League 1st round day 1 football match between AC Milan and Liverpool FC at the San Siro stadium in Milan on September 17, 2024. (Photo by PIERO CRUCIATTI / AFP)

Liverpool strutted to a 3-1 win at AC Milan on Tuesday as the Reds got their campaign in the revamped Champions League off to a stylish start.

Arne Slot’s team reacted superbly to going behind in the third minute to a Christian Pulisic goal and ended up cruising to the three points thanks to strikes from Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai.

Fashion Week got underway in Milan on Tuesday and it was the away team who made all of the slick moves at the San Siro in a clash of European football royalty.

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Liverpool and Milan have been crowned continental kings 13 times and have beaten each other in Champions League finals but the Reds were a class above and would have won by more had the woodwork not twice denied Mohamed Salah in the first half.

“It was a great day to celebrate your birthday at a stadium like this, and then to win,” said Slot, who turned 46 on Tuesday, to Prime Video.

“I wouldn’t have said this after five minutes but it went quite well.”

For Liverpool it was a return to perfect form after falling to a shock home defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend while Milan again struggled under new coach Paulo Fonseca ahead of Sunday’s Milan derby.

Fonseca has failed to convince Milan supporters, a large number of whom stayed away on Tuesday night with fewer than 60,000 turning up for their team’s highest profile fixture of the new league phase of Europe’s top club competition.

READ: Liverpool’s title bid dented by Man United draw, Spurs go fourth

And Milan will likely have to face Italian champions Inter Milan, who take on Manchester City on Wednesday, without France goalkeeper Mike Maignan who limped off with a knee injury early in the second half.

“It’s a difficult start for us and we have to change things,” Pulisic told Sky in Italy before looking for an immediate response against Inter at the weekend.

“Of course it (the derby) is a big match for us,” he said. “We need to turn things around. We have a big opportunity to do that.”

Liverpool hit back

Milan fans put up a giant display which read “fearless” before kick-off and the hosts tore straight into Liverpool, Virgil van Dijk desperately clearing Tijjani Reijnders low cross.

And Pulisic quickly had Milan ahead with his super low finish, punishing Liverpool’s dawdling defence after being brilliantly sent scurrying towards goal by Alvaro Morata at the end of a move which was started by Maignan.

Liverpool quickly responded however and were unlucky in the 16th minute when Salah smashed an effort with his weaker right foot off the crossbar.

And the away side, whose pressing had started to force Milan into giving the ball away cheaply, were level when Konate nodded home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s floated free-kick.

With the Reds taking control, Milan should have been behind before Van Dijk nodded Liverpool ahead, as Diogo Jota wasted a great chance seconds after Konate’s leveller and Salah smacked another shot off the bar on the half-hour mark.

Things got even worse for the home team in the 51st minute when Maignan, who had already dropped to the ground in pain twice during the first half, limped off after being clattered by Fikayo Tomori as the England defender desperately tried to stop Jota from extending Liverpool’s lead.

Maignan was replaced by teenager Lorenzo Torriani and the rookie could only look on in the 67th minute as Szoboszlai bundled home Cody Gakpo’s teasing cross after the Netherlands forward eased past sluggish Strahinja Pavlovic.

Disappointed Milan fans began streaming towards the exit long before the final whistle, after which a deluge of whistles and boos, and loud chants for their team to “show some balls”, met a thoroughly deserved defeat.