Liverpool 5 Toulouse 1: Rampant Reds charge make French side look silly with thumping Europa League victory
JURGEN KLOPP may not have enjoyed this continental soiree as much as the score line or his trademark grin at the end suggested.
True enough, a third successive group win means he can effectively start planning for the knock–out stages.
As near-certain table-toppers there will be a breather, for the manager who constantly complains about fixture overload for other than a major collapse Liverpool will directly advance to the last 16 sharper end of the Europa League.
Next up is the same opposition on the other side of the English Channel and the gulf that was so wide at times in this victory is hardly liable to narrow in 13 days’ time.
Diogo Jota, Wataru Endo with his first goal for the club he joined from Stuttgart for £16.2million and Darwin Nunez put their side on easy street by half-time.
There was also an encouraging full debut for 19-year-old left-back Luke Chambers.
So why wouldn’t the German be delighted following this win over the French Cup holders that only suggested that his side are correctly rated as favourites to emerge trophy holders?
Well, the showboating would be a start.
He made eight changes from the line-up that saw off Everton 2-0 in Saturday’s Merseyside derby but if he was looking for an edge from those he brought in there were occasions were it was all a bit too relaxes-vous.
Having taken the lead thanks to Jota’s runaway ninth-minute opener after he dashed half the field to convert, his side were soon pegged back.
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Trent Alexander-Arnold got complacent and played the opposition on-side in a break, allowing Aron Donnum to turn cleverly and send the ball forward for Thijs Dallinga.
The Dutchman whose six goals did so much to provide Toulouse with a first-ever major domestic trophy last season, didn’t mess around either.
He dashed forward to beat No2 goalkeeper Caiomhin Kelleher with a fine strike.
Early in the second half the Irishman then got himself in a complete mess when he should have been in command in his box.
Gabriel Suazo was gifted with a priceless opportunity to cut the deficit to one but with the goal at his mercy somehow managed to shoot straight as the night’s Reds captain Alexander-Arnold on the line.
Even Liverpool’s fourth goal indicated that Klopp’s replacement players were not taking seriously enough the job of progressing last season’s dismal flops back towards new silver wear.
Nunez was allowed to run free and clear after a midfield blunder but with only 18-year-old goalkeeper Guillaume Restes to beat and all the time in the world the enigmatic Uruguayan still slammed his shot against a post.
Ryan Gravenberch will hardly have believed his eyes that he got the chance to smack home his side’s 65th-minute fourth.
None of those moments will have allowed Klopp to feel that, truly, he can truly count on his back-up boys when the let frites are down later in the season.
Still, there was much to be pleased about for him.
Jota finished his ninth–minute chance in killer style while Endo didn’t mess about as he met a cross from Alexander-Arnold to head home with a half–hour gone.
Nunez got his fifth goal of the season four minutes later thanks to a shot from Curtis Jones that was charged down.
Unlike later, he fairly smashed his left footer high into the net after Gravenberch’s driving run had driven the French into reverse gear.
So job done against the minnows now being guided by former Anfield sporting director Damien Comoli.
Even Mo Salah made a late cameo appearance and added an injury-time fifth in what ultimately became a training exercise.
But one that will still have raised a few questions in the head of the Anfield boss.
Here’s how the action unfolded at Anfield…