Jurgen Klopp played the same 11 that drew against Brentford on Saturday, a surprise given that Liverpool have a giant game coming up at the weekend against title rivals Manchester City, except that Trent Alexander Arnold was replaced at right-back by James Milner after the former went down yesterday with a groin injury.
Speaking before the Porto game, Klopp seemed to imply that Trent wouldn’t be available for Sunday’s game, which might take away from Liverpool’s offensive play, but given the torrid time Raheem Sterling has subjected the Reds left-back to in recent matches between the two clubs, having Milner or Joe Gomez – who came on for Milner after 64 minutes – in that position might provide extra defensive solidity for the Merseysiders.
Indeed, in his early part of his time at Liverpool, in the big games, Klopp was prone to leaving Trent out and playing Gomez in his place. Later, the Reds manager decided that Trent’s attacking play was so vital that it was worth taking the risk with his defensive deficiencies.
As for tonight’s game, Liverpool took control after 10 minutes and on 18 minutes Curtis Jones – tonight’s man-of-the-match, with four assists – picked up the ball on the Porto left, drove into the box, let off a curling shot which keeper Diogo Costa weakly parried into the centre of the goal and Mo Salah nipped in ahead of the defender to poke the ball home.
The goal provoked no reaction from Porto. Liverpool continued to dominate and on 45 minutes deservedly scored a second when Milner’s low cross from the Liverpool right again prompted indecisive keeping from Costa, who let the ball skid right across his area where Sadio Mané was waiting for a tap in.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with Porto not able to lay a finger on Liverpool, who created and squandered chances, with Diogo Jota being particularly profligate. Inevitably, on 60 minutes, the Reds scored a third. Again, Curtis Jones was heavily involved, winning the ball in his own half then driving towards the Porto goal where he calmly found the free Salah, who swept the ball passed the advancing keeper.
The game seemed to be over and Klopp rang the changes, bringing on Gomez for Milner, Roberto Firmino for Salah and Taki Minamino for Mané. Unfortunately, the substitutions seemed to disrupt Liverpool and on 74 minutes Porto scored a fine goal after Vieira crossed from the Porto right and Taremi twisted his neck to get his forehead on the ball and power it passed Alisson Becker.
For a couple of minutes, it seemed that Porto had the momentum to stage a comeback; but then a hopeful long ball from Jones found Firmino 30 yards out and with Costa inexplicably rushing out of his area, Liverpool's Brazilian striker slid the ball into the open goal.
Four minutes later, a Jones volley from the edge of the area ricocheted after a Porto defender into the path of Firmino, who calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net, scoring his second and Liverpool’s fifth.
