Still without a single point in their group, Rangers hoped a return to Ibrox could unsettle an out-of-form Liverpool.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst made one change to the team that beat St Mirren on Saturday, with Ryan Kent replacing Rabbi Matondo. Rangers switched to a 4-2-3-1 shape after using a 3-4-3 at Anfield.
Jürgen Klopp made six changes to the side that lost to Arsenal at the weekend. Out went Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joël Matip, Thiago Alcântara, Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota; in came Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konaté, Fabinho, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho and Roberto Firmino. Liverpool continued with their new 4-4-2 formation.
Although on paper the same shape, Liverpool’s 4-4-2 differed significantly from the one against Arsenal. Against Arsenal, they used forwards as the wingers, positioned high and wide as they looked to play directly in behind. Here Liverpool used two attacking midfielders instead, who would drift inside to pick up the ball between the lines and join up with Firmino dropping off the frontline.
This left space out wide for the full-backs to overlap, with Kostas Tsimikas pushing forward down the left to cross for Darwin Nuñez, yet Gomez stayed back on the right, which, with Elliott tucking inside, left them a little narrow.
After meekly surrendering to Liverpool last week until it was too late, here Rangers tried to press them from the off, yet Liverpool appeared quite comfortable playing around this pressure, or would play over it to Nuñez. Using a man-orientated pressing scheme, Ryan Jack would get pulled forward to press Fabinho, but Rangers wouldn’t block off the passes into those behind them, where Liverpool’s attacking midfielders outnumbered John Lundstram.
Like clockwork, Liverpool conceded first though. Rangers played a long ball forward that Tsimikas headed away, but Carvalho opted to try and control the dropping ball and turn out rather than just touching it inside to Fabinho in space. This allowed James Tavernier to pressure and rob him of the ball, poking it forward to Antonio-Mirko Colak. Neither Konaté, who was marking him, nor Virgil van Dijk, whose area he moved into, stepped up to put any pressure on the striker, preferring to back off, leaving him to touch the ball off to Jack. As Jordan Henderson had made no effort to get back into position, Scott Arfield was left free to attack the gap between Konaté and Gomez, as the right-back, presumably concerned with Kent out wide, hadn’t tucked in far enough to close the space. Running onto the ball, Arfield took a touch then finished just inside the far post to give Rangers the lead. It was more weak defending handing the opposition the lead despite what had otherwise been a solid start from Liverpool.
However, Liverpool equalised minutes later from a corner. Fashion Sakala, meant to be defending the near post, moved forward so that he was caught under the ball and didn’t even try jumping to head it away, while Tavernier was quite literally holding on to Firmino with both hands, yet the Brazilian simply walked forward and nodded it in, getting to the ball ahead of Tavernier without having to make any tricky movements to do so. It was comically bad defending from Rangers.
Soon after half-time Liverpool took the lead. Rangers sent a long ball forward, pushing their attackers high, but Liverpool cut it out, meaning those Rangers attackers were left ahead of the ball. In a similar situation to Rangers’ goal, Elliott was receiving a bouncing ball with his back to play just as Carvalho was, but rather than trying to control it and turn out under pressure from Borna Barisic, he nodded it into space for Gomez. Barisic went flying past him, meaning he was in no position to defend as Gomez pushed forward on the overlap, while Kent sprinted back but couldn’t catch up with the full-back. Gomez then picked out a perfect pass to Firmino making a run in behind substitute Leon King to finish at the back post.
They then added another. Pressing high, they forced Allan McGregor into kicking long, but it went only as far as Fabinho, who knocked it on to Carvalho. Having just been spreading out, organised as if to pass out from the back, Rangers’ backline were rushing to step up, but Firmino timed a run in behind just as they did so. He was through against the goalkeeper, but instead cheekily flicked the ball on to Nuñez, who had curved his run to stay onside and face play, giving him the time to calmly open up his hips and finish past McGregor.
Firmino had the opportunity to claim what would have been a well-deserved hat-trick, but he instead opted to assist his teammate. The Brazilian was at the centre of everything good about Liverpool – in an attacking sense but also putting in an excellent defensive shift, which used to be the norm for him, but is rarer now he’s in his thirties.
Klopp made a triple substitution immediately after, swapping Tsimikas, Henderson and Nuñez for Andy Robertson, Thiago and Salah, then brought on Jota for Firmino soon after. The Egyptian then proceeded to claim a hat-trick in just six minutes, the quickest seen in Champions League history.
His first saw Arfield give the ball away cheaply, allowing Liverpool to counter. The ball looped up into the air and fell to Salah, who brought it down, put his body between the ball and Barisic to protect it while also shifting it onto his left foot, then poked it low under McGregor.
His second saw Thiago intercept a pass into midfield, play a one-two with Fabinho, then feed the ball into Jota between the lines, who, on the half-turn, slid a pass first time into Salah as he ran in behind. Barisic followed Salah though, clawing at his back, so the Egyptian stopped the ball, allowed the defenders to run past him, then shot through the gap between them past McGregor, unsighted thanks to the defenders running back.
For his third, Liverpool kicked long to Jota, who brought the ball down with a great first touch then slid it out to Salah. He again cut onto his left and placed a shot into the far corner.
Playing as a striker in the 4-4-2 allows Liverpool to keep Salah forward in attack rather than forcing him to track back as he does when playing as the winger, while also putting him in goalscoring positions in the centre rather than hugging the touchline as he does in the 4-3-3.
Salah nearly managed to return the favour, crossing to Jota as Liverpool worked the ball into the box following a corner, but McGregor managed to scramble it away when the Portuguese took a heavy touch. Only as far as Elliott though, who fired it into the net on the volley.
Albeit against a terrible Rangers side and once again conceding the first goal in a string of poor individual decisions, this was a much better performance from Liverpool. Whereas the week prior they used an open attacking shape that appeared to merely overpower a lesser team – and this openness was then punished when they came up against a team in Arsenal who could actually cope with their attacking – here they used a more compact shape that allowed them greater control and defensive solidity. Manchester City will still be obvious favourites for Sunday, but this was a much-needed confidence boost to stop the season getting away from Liverpool.
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