By Kian Roy
Liverpool maintained their one hundred percent record in the UEFA Champions League as they scraped past Villereal at Anfield with Rio Ngumoha shining for the reds.
It was a nightmare start for Andoni Iraolas side as the ever-reliable Virgil Van Dijk made a rare mistake in the 4th minute as h failed to deal with Renato Viegas long ball and headed it straight to Villereals number nine Georges Mikautadze who calmy placed the ball past Allison into the bottom right-hand corner giving the Spaniards and early lead.
Liverpool’s nightmare start got even worse in the 29th minute when Nathan Dylan Saliba got in behind Liverpool’s midfield and play a lovely through ball into Sergej Cardona who beat the offside trap and placed the ball into the bottom left corner sending Allison the wrong way giving Villereal a two-goal advantage inside the first thirty minutes.
The reds responded quickly after conceding a second as Cody Gakpo managed to beat his full back down the left-hand side and deliver a great cross across Villereals six-yard box but Renato Viega was able to put the ball behind for a corner.
Kostas Tsmikas delivered said corner excellently and found the smallest man on the pitch Alexis Mac Allister who rose above the rest at the front post to head the ball brilliantly into the far left corner bringing Liverpool back into the game.
Liverpool then equalised 10 minutes later right on half time when Rio Ngumoha floated a brilliant cross to the back post which Sergej Cardona failed to deal with and fell to Ronald Araujo who headed home to bring his side level heading into the break.
Liverpool came out the second half much better than they did the first and immediately starting piling the pressure on Villereal but it took till the 65th minute for the reds to take the lead. Once again Rio Ngumoha burst pass Sergej Cardona down the right and then danced around Juan Foyth and delivered a perfect cross into Alexis Mac Allister who hit the ball into the roof of the next smashing the crossbar on the way in.
Iraola’s side added a fourth goal in the 68th minute when Kostas Tsmikas won the ball in the opposition half and played in Cody Gakpo who found Substitute Florian Wirtz who perfectly finished the ball into the bottom right corner making a excellent impact of the bench.
The man of the match Rio Ngumoha was substituted off on the 74th minute to a standing ovation and chats of “Rio, Rio, Rio” as the 18-year-old announced himself to the rest of Europe as a future star.
Villereal managed the make it a nervy ending at Anfield as Callum Oluwaseyi got on the end of Ayoze Perez’s cross and placed the ball into the bottom left corner on the 86th minute. However, Liverpool managed to hold on turning out 4-3 winners in the end.
This result leaves Liverpool second in the UCL table with 3 wins from 3 and Villereal’s awful start to the season goes on as they have lost all 3 of their champions league games so far this season.
