UEFA Champions League 2018-19: 3 talking points from Group C's final day matches (PSG, Liverpool, Napoli, Red Star Belgrade)
The Matchday 6 action in the UEFA Champions League 2018-19 season saw Liverpool and Napoli battle it out for the runners-up spot in the group, in order to qualify for the round of 16. Paris Saint Germain meanwhile faced a tricky tie in Belgrade where they faced off against Red Star, and were expected to win and emerge group winner's in a potential group of death.
For Liverpool, a 1-0 victory would have been enough, but Napoli with only a draw could have secured a round of 16 spot.
Lets look at the 3 major talking points from Matchday 6 of the UEFA Champions League Group C matches.
#1 Salah's brilliant strike enough for Liverpool to progress into round of 16
Group C was truly the group of death in the Champions League, with last season's runners up Liverpool, Serie A runners up Napoli, and French champions PSG all locking horns with one another to progress into the knockout rounds.
The Reds went ahead in the first half through a brilliant goal from Salah at a tight angle. With this goal, Liverpool had done enough as they clung on to the lead till the end. Jurgen Klopp's side will now join Paris Saint-Germain as the runners up in Group C, while Napoli identical on points with Liverpool, looks to return to winning ways in the Europa League.
Salah's 14th Champions League goal for Liverpool means he is only behind legend Steven Gerrard, but he was not the only saviour for Liverpool, Alisson Becker who pulled out a splendid save from Arkadiusz Milik in stoppage time was worth the £65 million paid to Roma in the summer.
Liverpool would be out of the competition had Alisson not made the fantastic save.
"If I knew he was this good, I would have paid twice as much!" Klopp joked afterward.
"I'm not sure if a manager has ever been more proud of a team than I am at the moment," Klopp said to BT Sport. "We deserved to win and it's just brilliant. My respect for Napoli couldn't be bigger, how strong they are"
Van Dijk echoed his manager's words:
"We want to play on the highest level and the Champions League, other than the Premier League for us, is the highest level. We want to reach the maximum and hopefully do better than we did last year in the Champions League"