After a match that witnessed several fluctuations in the result, and a wasted penalty kick, Liverpool won an exciting victory over its Italian guest, AC Milan, on Wednesday, in the first round of Group B of the Champions League.
The 2020 Premier League champion defeated his Italian rival, returning to the most expensive European Championship, after a long absence, 3-2, in a match hosted by the first at Old Trafford.
The last time Milan played a Champions League match was on March 11, 2014, against Atlético Madrid.
Liverpool coach, German Jurgen Klopp, chose to rest Dutch defense pole Virgil van Dijk and gave Joe Gomez the opportunity to play his first match this season. He also assigned Belgian Divock Origi the task of playing as an attacking center, at the expense of Senegalese Sadio Mane.
On the other hand, Milan missed the veteran Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 40, due to an Achilles tendon injury, knowing that he returned to the stadiums last weekend after an absence of three months due to injury as well, and was replaced by Croatian striker Ante Rebic.
Liverpool began the match pressing to score an early goal when right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold penetrated the ball into the area before hitting a ball that hit English defender Fikayo Tomori, and turned an error into his team’s goal (9).
The referee awarded a penalty kick after a handball by the Algerian Ismail bin Nasser, the Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, but Milan goalkeeper Mike Minyan succeeded in stopping it (14).
However, Milan, contrary to the course of play, managed to score two goals in the last three minutes of the first half, as Rebic equalized first after a perfect pass from Ivorian Frank Kessier, who followed it into the net of Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson (42).
Then Spaniard Ibrahim Diaz gave the Lombardy team the lead in the penultimate minute when Belgian Axis Selmikers hit a ball, which was cleared from the goal line, but Diaz followed it into the net.
At the beginning of the second half, Salah compensated for wasting the penalty kick by equalizing when he broke the offside trap after receiving a ball from Origi and winking it into the net (49).
Then Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson gave his team full match points when Milan’s defense failed to clear one of the balls from a corner kick and hit the bird into the net (69).
