The Champions League has brought familiar comfort in a season of maddening inconsistency for Jürgen Klopp. Liverpool secured their place in the knockout stages with a game to spare, their troubled form and injury woes forgotten, as Ajax were brushed aside in Amsterdam.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring shortly before half-time to go one step further to become Liverpool’s all-time top scorer in European football. Liverpool had been second best up to that point, but with a delicate strike Salah changed the complexion of the entire night. Ajax, after a determined start that should have given them a two-goal lead, wilted in the moment. Two back-to-back second-half goals from Darwin Núñez – his fourth in his last four starts – and Harvey Elliott consolidated second place in Group A behind rampant leaders Napoli.
The tables will be turned if Liverpool beat the Italian club by a four-goal margin at Anfield next week. The opportunity may seem like a luxury for Klopp after the way this Champions League campaign opened in Naples. The response to that 4-1 reverse was a strong demonstration of Liverpool’s European pedigree and experience.
There were shades of Napoli in Liverpool’s start at a raucous Johan Cruyff Arena where their defense was judged apart and their woodwork hammered from Ajax’s first attack. In Naples, Victor Osimhen had hit the base of a Liverpool post after 42 seconds. This time it was Steven Berghuis who hit the crossbar with just 128 seconds left to intensify an impressive atmosphere. I should have achieved much more.
Davy Klaassen and Daley Blind combined near the corner flag with the former Manchester United defender’s pass deflecting off Brian Brobbey inside the Liverpool box. The Ajax centre-forward held off Virgil van Dijk and laid the ball off to Berghuis, who slotted past Andy Robertson on his 50th Champions League appearance for Klopp’s side. The goal was at the midfielder’s mercy, but with Alisson on the beat from close range, his low shot fired off the post for a save.
Mohamed Salah lifts the ball over Ajax goalkeeper Remko Pasveer to give Liverpool the lead. Photograph: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Unlike Napoli, Liverpool learned from the suspense, although it took a while. Alisson made his 200th appearance for the club and overcame sustained early pressure to preserve a 90th clean sheet in the Liverpool goal. The Brazilian international intervened to prevent Jorge Sánchez’s cross reaching the unmarked Dusan Tadic at the back post.
Berghuis was dragged in shortly after Trent Alexander-Arnold had given the ball away cheaply, Sanchez fired straight at Alisson from 25 yards and Tadic had a superb chance when Brobbey broke down the right and headed his captain unmarked inside the area Alexander-Arnold recovered just in time to block Tadic’s powerful drive.
“Should have scored,” said the winger. “If he had scored or Steven had scored, it would have been a different game. They scored from their first situation. The best teams always punish you if you don’t score.”
Liverpool threatened little early on. Salah’s blocked volley from Robertson’s delivery in the 29th minute was the visitors’ first genuine chance of note. Klopp deployed Núñez and Salah at the front of a 4-4-2 diamond with Roberto Firmino dropping deep to orchestrate attacks, but it wasn’t until the dying moments of the first half that the plan got going. The Uruguay international, who missed Saturday’s defeat at Nottingham Forest with a slight hamstring problem, returned to theater when he went to the ground clutching his face after a non-existent touch from Calvin Bassey.
The moment seemed to sum up Liverpool’s frustration in the final third. But then, almost out of nowhere, they claimed an invaluable lead. It was a goal created superbly by Jordan Henderson and executed brilliantly by Salah. Receiving a pass from Firmino down the left, the Liverpool captain rose to a challenge from Ajax right-back Sanchez and flicked a beautiful, instant pass with the outside of his right foot into Salah’s run down the middle local defense. Remko Pasveer raced off his line and only managed to invite the Egypt international to clip him first time and into an open goal. It was Salah’s 40th European goal for Liverpool, taking him one of the club records set by Steven Gerrard.
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Belief immediately drained from Ajax, players and supporters. Liverpool should have doubled their lead before half-time when Robertson latched on to Joe Gomez’s pass, got away from Steven Bergwijn and cut through the Ajax defense with a pinpoint pass to Firmino. The Brazilian chose not to shoot and marked Núñez completely unmarked at the back post but, with an open goal, the forward hit the post.
Amendments were quickly made in the second half when Nunez headed Liverpool into a two-goal lead from Robertson’s corner. With Fabinho handling Jurriën Timber around a crowded penalty spot, the centre-forward got away from Sanchez to send a angled header past Pasveer and into the far corner.
Just three minutes later, Elliott completed a flowing move with a fine finish into the roof of the Ajax goalkeeper’s net. Salah turned into an excellent provider this time, receiving Alexander-Arnold’s pass in a central position and releasing the young midfielder with a superb ball in behind the Ajax defence. Elliott applied the finishing touch the pass deserved to beat Pasveer from a tight angle.
Ajax manager Alfred Schreuder felt his substitutions heckled and jeers accompany a home performance that quickly went downhill after Salah’s opener. Relegation to the Europa League beckons the Dutch champions in the spring.
For Liverpool, it is the familiar ground of the knockout phase of the Champions League that awaits a sixth consecutive season.