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Champions League: Salah fires Reds to record, PSG cruise and red card costs Man City

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7th December, 2021
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Mohamed Salah has scored his 20th goal of the season in a 2-1 win over AC Milan to ensure Liverpool became the first English side to win all six Champions League group matches.

Ajax also enjoyed a perfect group stage, with four different names on the scoresheet in the 4-2 defeat of Sporting Lisbon in Amsterdam.

Even in a dead rubber, in a team showing eight changes at the San Siro, Salah’s insatiable quest for goals showed no signs of waning.

The Egypt international scored a 36th-minute equaliser to cancel out Fikayo Tomori’s opener.

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Divock Origi’s first Champions League goal since their 2019 final victory settled the tie but unlike Saturday’s added-time heroics at Wolves, he had to share the headlines.

Salah is the first Liverpool player to score 20-plus goals in five consecutive seasons since Ian Rush, who managed it six times up to 1986-87.

“Honestly I don’t feel pride a lot in football because most of the time I expect good things happen,” Klopp said.

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“But tonight there was a lot of pride, an exceptional performance; I don’t mean because we won six games, I mean this game because it was so good with that many changes.

“I have to say Nate Phillips and Ibou Konate played an exceptional game, absolutely exceptional game … how they defended tonight was outstanding.”

Milan needed to win and FC Porto draw with Atletico Madrid to reach the last 16 – but the Spaniards went to Portugal and finished 3-1 winners.

Atletico secured second spot in Group B with two late goals, with both sides finishing with 10 men.

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Real Madrid meanwhile defeated Inter Milan 2-0 thanks to superb long-range strikes from Toni Kroos and Marco Asensio.

The 13-time record European champions won Group D as a result with Inter, who had Nicolo Barella sent off, second.

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In Paris, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi each struck doubles as PSG dismantled Club Brugge 4-1 while Manchester City slipped to a defeat 2-1 at RB Leipzig.

Pep Guardiola’s side had already won Group A but Dominik Szoboszlai and Andre Silva gave interim coach Achim Beierlorzer victory in Leipzig’s first match since sacking Jesse Marsch.

The Germans confirmed third-place, and a spot in the Europa League after Christmas, with the win despite Riyad Mahrez scoring 13 minutes from time. Kyle Walker’s red card ended City’s comeback hopes.

“We will have to sit down and analyse this,” City defender Oleksandr Zinchenko told UEFA.com.

“That we had won the group before the game had nothing really to do with our performance.”

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Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund thrashed Besiktas 5-0 with Marco Reus and Erling Haaland scoring two apiece while Sheriff drew 1-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk.

In Leipzig, behind closed doors due to the re-imposition of COVID-19 countermeasures, the home team gave interim coach Achim Beierlorzer victory in their first match since sacking Jesse Marsch.

At halftime a much-changed but still strong Manchester City team were deservedly behind, conceding to Dominik Szoboszlai’s 24th-minute breakaway goal. 

Leipzig doubled their advantage with just under 20 minutes remaining when Andre Silva struck with a low shot from distance but City halved the deficit through Riyad Mahrez.

But as City looked to level the game Walker was dismissed for kicking Andre Silva.

© AAP

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