A warm spring evening at Anfield, with a comeback required to salvage a European tie and perhaps a season, and Liverpool delivered once more. Arne Slot might have done many things wrong this season but losing that feature of Liverpool’s identity cannot be added to the list after an emphatic victory over Galatasaray.
Liverpool will be reunited with Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter finals of the Champions League, in a repeat of the last 16 tie that Slot often reminisces about from last season, thanks to a rousing and incisive defeat of distinctly average visitors from Turkey. Mohamed Salah recovered from missing a first half penalty to produce a superb second half display in which he made history in becoming the first player from Africa to score 50 goals in the Champions League. He, and Liverpool, got there in style.
Anfield was more partisan than usual with Galatasaray fans banned from the second leg following trouble away at Juventus in the playoff round.
Uefa’s ban did not extend to the 200 Galatasaray supporters with VIP tickets – a standard allocation at Champions League fixtures – and Okan Buruk’s players made a point of applauding their small pocket of support high up in the Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand before kick-off. But that was pretty much all they gave them during a one-sided first half. Liverpool did not take long to assert their authority over the contest.
