LIVERPOOL, Sep 16: Jordan Henderson capped Liverpool’s second-half comeback with a brilliantly controlled finish to clinch a thrilling 3-2 win over AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Liverpool captain met a clearance to the edge of the area with a half-volley that flew into the bottom corner in the 69th minute in another classic European game at Anfield.
Liverpool somehow went into halftime behind, having begun in devastating fashion and taken the lead in the ninth minute through an effort from Trent Alexander-Arnold that deflected in off defender Fikayo Tomori — one of 13 shots by the English squad in the opening 15 minutes.
Helped by Mohamed Salah having a penalty saved by Mike Maignan following a handball in the area, Milan was able to stay in sight of Liverpool and struck twice before halftime to stun the home crowd that had waited 554 days to watch their team in the Champions League at Anfield.
They were both well-worked team goals, too, finished off by Ante Rebic and Brahim Diaz in the 42nd and 44th minutes as a Liverpool defense missing the rested Virgil van Dijk was carved open.
“First half an hour, we blew them away,” Liverpool left back Andy Robertson said.
“Then we got sloppy and stopped doing the things we were doing really well. We let them back into the game and walk in at halftime thinking, ‘How have we let this happen?’”
Liverpool started the second half as it began the first and, in the 48th, Salah made amends for his penalty failure by running into Divock Origi’s scooped pass and poking the ball past Maignan, who curiously chose not to come out of the six-yard box to collect the ball.
Henderson completed the fightback with his first Champions League goal in seven years as Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp wasn’t made to pay for making a number of key changes, like leaving out Van Dijk and Sadio Mane.
“Now we won, I can say that the changes were the right thing to do because playing every three days is just not possible with the same guys,” Klopp said. “The guys who came on did incredibly well.” (AP)
