Six more spots in the Champions League knockout stage have been filled. It was a good day for English sides, while several others – including the darlings of last season’s tournament – will be ruing their failures. Here’s a rundown of what happened in Europe’s premier club competition on Tuesday.
Group E
It ended up being more stressful than Liverpool fans would have liked, but in the end, the reigning champions marched on to the knockout stages of the tournament courtesy of an entertaining 2-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg.
Liverpool, who looked susceptible defensively in the opening half against an up-tempo Salzburg side that needed to win to advance, spurned multiple chances themselves before Naby Keita and Mohamed Salah scored within a minute of each other early in the second half to cement top spot in the group.
Elsewhere in the quartet, Napoli snapped their harrowing nine-match winless run by hammering Genk at the San Paolo. Arkadiusz Milik scored three times in the opening half, and Dries Mertens added a second-half penalty to secure second place for the Italian club.
Salzburg …read more