Liverpool – Bayer Leverkusen 4-0: Champions League – live reaction | Champions League

Robertson won the ball on the edge of the D and Liverpool were gone. In no time they had a four-on-two with Nunez on the ball. He went for the goal himself, Hincapie blocked the shot and Diaz happily received the rebound from eight meters.

GOAL! Liverpool – Leverkusen 4:0 (Diaz 90+2)

90+1 min Five minutes of injury time.

90 mins Robertson shoots over the goal from 10 yards. Gravenberch's flank was just behind him.

Leverkusen is gone. They were really at Anfield.

89 mins Salah's shot from close range is blocked by Hincapie. Leverkusen seem to be ready for bed, they have been completely exhausted in the last half hour.

89 mins “I know Arne Slot has said that he inherited a good squad with some good players, but one change he has made this season is to go from a 4-1-2-3 more to a 4th -2-3-1 to switch. Pushing a central midfielder further forward,” says Andy Flintoff. “It was very rare for Klopp to effectively select four strikers, but at the moment he has Gakpo, Salah, Szoboszlai and Diaz as his front four.”

I would argue that it's more of a 4-2-1-3 than a 4-2-3-1, but we never list it as such as it just looks a bit strange.

88th minute: Liverpool substitution Jarell Quansah comes in for Ibrahima Konate.

87 mins The corner is headed to Frimpong, who races over the goal from 25 meters. Decent performance, but Kelleher had done it.

87 mins Suddenly Kelleher is the busiest man at Anfield. He goes to the left and stretches wide to block Andrich's low shot from the D-border.

85 mins Kelleher, who didn't have much to do tonight, keeps a clean sheet with a great double save. He very cleverly sat to his right to block Schick's shot and then jumped up to block the follow-up shot.

84 mins Liverpool break five on four but Darwin Nunez's pass is intercepted.

The first two goals were brilliant; This was a little too easy. Salah curled a routine cross to the far post, where Diaz ignored a challenge from Hofmann, who landed on his backside, and rattled the ball past Hradecky from six yards. At first I thought Diaz might have fouled Hofmann, but he was just too strong.

GOAL! Liverpool – Leverkusen 3-0 (Diaz 83)

81st minute: Double substitution at Leverkusen Patrick Schick, Mr. Injury Time himself and Nathan Tella replace Victor Boniface and Alex Grimaldo.

81 mins Although Leverkusen certainly hasn't thrown in the towel yet, nothing is happening that suggests a comeback. I suppose that can happen at Anfield – you play well, the plan works and before you know it you're 2-0 down.

80th minute: Triple change for Liverpool Andy Robertson, Darwin Nunez and Conor Bradley replace Cody Gakpo, Kostas Tsimikas and Trent Alexander-Arnolld.

78 mins “One of the presenters on TalkSport pointed out that Slot appears to be completely devoid of ego,” says Phil Sawyer. “He has stepped in and resisted the urge to impose his authority and instead simply builds on what is there. I'm old enough to remember Paisley replacing hothead Shankly. Slot has something of the quiet man about it. He also seems to have a good ability to observe the first half and make the necessary changes for the second.”

He's a male Dutch football manager, so I'd be amazed if there isn't an ego bubbling underneath. But he manages it brilliantly and his PR is impeccable. Is there anything not to like about him so far?

76 mins Tapsoba finds himself in the Liverpool penalty area and has a good shot which is well blocked by Van Dijk.

76 mins It is still too early for the current Champions League table. So here it is.

74 mins Salah's great pass is only slightly misdirected by Szobozslai, allowing Tah to get past. The jump made it difficult to attack the run, but with better contact with the ball he would have had a clear shot.

73rd minute: Double substitution for Leverkusen Robert Andrich and Jonas Hofmann come for Aleix Garcia and Exequiel Palacios.

73rd minute: Liverpool substitution Dominik Szoboszlai for the excellent Curtis Jones.

72 mins Liverpool is flying now. Mac Allister's low shot from 15 meters is saved very well by the inconspicuous Hradecky deep to his left. The ball runs free to Alexander-Arnold, whose heatseeker just passes the crossbar.

71 mins “Well, those few minutes were worth it!” says Phil Sawyer.

70 mins The last time Leverkusen lost an away game, in May 2023, it was like this Bloody May 2023.

68th minute: Bonifatius misses a great chance! Leverkusen's best chance of the game was missed by Bonifatius. Grimaldo took advantage of a short corner on the right and flicked a dangerous cross into the middle, where Boniface found the wrong side of Gravenberch but headed over from eight meters.

67 mins Before leaving in the second half, Xabi Alonso tapped the “This Is Anfield” sign in the tunnel. Over the last 10 minutes, his players have been given an unwelcome insight into the unique challenges that come with playing on this ground.

66 mins Jones had a shot blocked after conceding a poor defensive header.

65 mins So when do we start taking Liverpool seriously as a contender for victory? absolutely everything?

Salah cut inwards from the right, gave Diaz the ball and moved across the line to return. When the time came, he delivered a great cross with his right foot for the first time and Gakpo flew like Mick Harford and headed emphatically into the net at the far post.

GOAL! Liverpool – Leverkusen 2-0 (Gakpo 63)

63rd minute: Gakpo has a goal disallowed! It was another great goal, capped off with a flying header from Gakpo at the far post. I think maybe that's a given – he's looking at me.