Liverpool brushed aside Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 at Anfield as a hat-trick from Luis Diaz and a goal from Cody Gakpo sent them on their way to a famous victory against the reigning Bundesliga champions.
Here’s how we rated the players from the game…
Defence
Caoimhin Kelleher: 7 – Had virtually nothing to do until the closing stages but made two fantastic saves against Patrik Schick and Florian Wirtz. Kelleher is oozing class and confidence at the moment, allowing Alisson Becker to take his time with his injury recovery.
Trent Alexander-Arnold: 8 – Fantastic game from the Liverpool vice-captain as he kept Alejandro Grimaldo quiet through the game – a task teams have failed to do against Leverkusen over the past 18 months.
Virgil van Dijk: 8 – Magnificent as always from the Liverpool skipper. Kept things simple and marshaled the backline expertly as he handled the dangerous Victor Boniface with ease.
Ibrahima Konate: 8 – World-class performance and didn’t look like the arm injury he picked up against Brighton was playing on his mind. Was withdrawn from Jarell Quansah with less than five minutes left on the clock.
Kostas Tsimikas: 7 – Superb once again as he earned another start ahead of Andy Robertson. Was lucky in the first half as Jeremie Frimpong’s goal was chalked off due to a handball, but was flawless apart from that moment.
Midfield
Ryan Gravenberch: 8 – Another top game for the Dutchman – particularly in the second half – against one of the most exciting teams in world football.
Curtis Jones: 9 – One of Liverpool’s best players and more than justified his selection ahead of Dominik Szoboszlai. Showed his skill and guile on the ball and made a few mazy runs through midfield. Had a shot early in the second half that went narrowly wide of Lukas Hradecky’s goal.
Also produced the moment of the game with a fantastic assist for Luis Diaz’s goal. Neil Mellor described Jones’ performance against Chelsea as ‘magnificent’ and he was once again at the top of his game today.
Alexis Mac Allister: 7 – Fared much better than what was the case against Brighton last week as he kept things tidy in the centre of the park.
Attack
Mohamed Salah: 8 – Was largely kept at bay by Piero Hincapie and was spared by the offside flag after missing a glorious chance to score in the second half. Redeemed himself with two fantastic assists as he showed his class when his team needed him.
Cody Gakpo: 8 – Was in the thick of the action after being chosen to lead the line over Darwin Nunez and scored Liverpool’s second with a close-range header. Slowly growing in stature to become a reliable performer for Slot.
Luis Diaz: 10 (Man of the Match) – Failed to get into the game in the first half but broke the deadlock with a delightful dink after being played through brilliantly by Jones.
Added two late goals late in the game to score his first Liverpool hat-trick. Everything went his way in the second half as he went home with the match ball.
Substitutes
Dominik Szoboszlai: 6 – Came on for Jones with just under 20 minutes left on the clock and had a chance to get a shot off from inside the box immediately.
Darwin Nunez: 5 – Was involved in a few decisive moments in the final third but failed to make the right decision, although it didn’t make any difference to the result.
Andy Robertson: 6 – Energetic display after coming on for Tsimikas. Fluffed a decent chance to score from inside the box, although it fell to his weaker foot.
Conor Bradley: 5 – Came to see off the game and didn’t have too much to do.
Jarell Quansah: N/A – Played just a few minutes and didn’t do enough to warrant a rating.
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