Liverpool’s Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as they maintained their perfect Champions League campaign with a barnstorming second-half display in a 4-0 victory over Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield on Tuesday.

Arne Slot’s men, who top the Premier League table, provisionally lead the standings of Europe’s elite club competition with their fourth win in four matches, with Aston Villa, the only other team with a 100% record, playing Club Brugge in their fourth game on Wednesday.

Leverkusen’s loss spoiled the return of manager and former Liverpool hero Alonso, who hoisted the Champions League trophy with the Reds in 2005.

“It’s painful the result more than the performance, probably,” Alonso told Amazon Prime. “But this is the Champions League, this is the highest level, and today it wasn’t enough for us.

“I tried to separate the game and the pain from the result from the nice feelings to come back. I’m really happy and thankful for that reception,” he added on the warm greeting he received from the Anfield crowd.

Alonso was heavily touted as a replacement for former Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp before ruling himself out of the running. Slot, however, has proved a worthy replacement for Klopp, and his halftime team talk certainly did the trick as they went on to record their 14th win in 16 games this season.

“We took more risk (in the second half),” Slot told Amazon Prime. “They overloaded the midfield a lot and we adjusted at halftime and took the risk to play one v one all over.”

The Dutchman played Diaz as a centre forward and it proved to be a masterful move, as the Colombian broke the deadlock of what had been a sluggish affair in stunning fashion in the 61st minute, timing his run onto Curtis Jones’ pinpoint pass through the heart of Leverkusen’s defence before lifting the ball over keeper Lukas Hradecky.

Cody Gakpo doubled the Reds’ lead two minutes later when he dived to head Mohamed Salah’s cross home at the back post. The goal was initially ruled offside but the decision was overturned by VAR.

Diaz netted his second in the 83rd minute when he latched onto a cross from Salah, and then held off a challenge before slotting past Hradecky.

He completed his hat-trick with a tap-in from close range in stoppage time after Darwin Nunez’s shot was blocked in a statement victory for the six-times winners of Europe’s top competition against the Bundesliga champions who lost just once in all competitions last season.

“We have top quality players all over the pitch, but actually, I really enjoyed playing in that position today, and wherever I’m playing on the pitch, I’m going to work hard, and I hope I can help the team,” said Diaz, adding he planned to go and search for the match ball.

Both teams were lacking quality in the final third in a dull first half. Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong had an effort shortly before halftime chalked off for a handball in the build-up, while Gakpo squandered a terrific chance for Liverpool, shooting straight at Hradecky after working the ball up the left side.

Alonso’s Leverkusen are provisionally 11th in the Champions League standings with a pair of wins, a draw and a loss.

The 42-year-old Alonso played 210 games for Liverpool in a five-year spell from 2004, and was part of the side that completed a miraculous comeback in their Champions League final win over AC Milan in Istanbul.

-Reuters

As Ruben Amorim was being hoisted into the air by his Sporting players after an outstanding 4-1 victory over Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday, fans of Manchester United would have had double reason to be smiling broadly.

Any City defeat these days acts as a crumb of comfort for the Old Trafford faithful whose club have fallen from grace since the departure of serial trophy winner Alex Ferguson in 2013.

But the fact that Sporting’s victory was masterminded by Amorim, the coach who will begin his Manchester United reign next week after agreeing to become Erik ten Hag’s replacement, will have made it extra special.

Amorim’s Sporting side were outplayed for the opening 35 minutes by City but showed great resolve, flair and intelligence to hit back from a goal down to sweep to victory and move into second place in the Champions League group phase.

It was a magical way for the 39-year-old to mark his final home game in charge and he will bid a final farewell at the weekend away to Braga as Sporting try to make it 11 wins from 11 in the Portuguese top flight.

“Looking at the game, it was written on the wall,” Amorim, who has won two Portuguese titles in four years at Sporting, told reporters. “The opponent missing a penalty. There are days when things have to happen in a certain way.

“I couldn’t ask for a better farewell. I’m very happy for this moment. It will still be better if we win in Braga, but I don’t think I could ask for better.

“The result helped with the farewell. Everyone deserved this moment. We were very happy here in the (Jose) Alvalade (Stadium). We’ve been through difficult times and to finish like this is special.”

Tuesday’s win would have already earned him some kudos among the Manchester United fans but he faces a huge test of his credentials with the club languishing in 13th place in the Premier League table after 10 games.

His first game in charge will be against Ipswich Town after the international break and he will be up against Pep Guardiola and Manchester City again in December. He knows the challenge will be a bigger one to that in Lisbon where he says he has enjoyed the “best phase of his life”.

“When I’m at the next club, the approach will have to be different. Not much is taken from here because we will have to play differently in the future,” he said.

“Both are historic clubs. It will certainly be a different game.”

Amorim has jokingly been referred to as the next Ferguson and if he turns out even half as good as the Scot then United’s long-suffering fans will be ecstatic.

He said he is not interested in comparisons though and vowed not to read the newspapers once he arrives in England.

“I’m certainly not going to read anything for six months. I did the same at Sporting. I’m not going to read anything or have access to anything. It’s the only way to do my job.” he said.

And on the future for Sporting, he said his replacement will inherit a strong foundation.

“The coach who comes will have a good legacy. Above all, there will be a structured club, which has won in recent years, and an intelligent audience that will realise that it will be necessary to give the next coach time to fine-tune some things.”

-Reuters

Kylian Mbappe was always going to leave an enormous void when he left Paris Saint-Germain, and the French side are struggling in this season’s Champions League without the goals of their former star.

While the striker is now at Real Madrid after scoring a club-record 256 goals in seven seasons in Paris, his old club entertain Atletico Madrid on Nov 6 in a crucial game in their European campaign.

PSG are misfiring in this new-look Champions League, with just four points from three games, despite starting with kind home fixtures against Girona and PSV Eindhoven either side of a trip to Arsenal.

Luis Enrique’s team beat Girona 1-0 only thanks to a late own goal, despite 26 attempts during that game.

That was followed by a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal in a performance which suggested a rejuvenated PSG side are now a long way from being contenders to win European club football’s greatest prize.

Then came a 1-1 draw against PSV, another game in which they managed 26 attempts and in which they paid a price for poor finishing.

PSG need only finish in the top 24 places in this 36-team league in order to reach the play-off round, and it seems reasonable to suggest that two wins from their remaining five fixtures may be enough to ensure that.

However, failure to beat Atletico would leave the Ligue 1 champions in an uncomfortable position with their next game away to Bayern Munich.

“It is the worst group,” Enrique said after the game against PSV in reference to his team’s fixtures, with Red Bull Salzburg, Manchester City and VfB Stuttgart also still to come.

“We need to be prepared to improve what we can and keep going. But yes, it is difficult and of course I am worried.”

The Qatar-owned club are coping just fine without Mbappe in Ligue 1, as they sit six points clear at the top of the table having scored 29 goals in 10 matches.

Mbappe netted 44 times in 48 appearances last season, even if he often struggled to produce his best form.

Nevertheless, PSG’s difficulties in front of goal in the Champions League date back to last season’s semi-finals when Mbappe was still there.

They were favourites to beat Borussia Dortmund, but lost 2-0 on aggregate. PSG had a grand total of 45 attempts on goal across the two legs and failed to score.

This season they have two goals from 62 attempts in Europe, and will have to be more clinical against Diego Simeone’s Atletico, the best defence in Spain.

Bradley Barcola, the 22-year-old France international left-winger, is now PSG’s main attacking threat with eight goals this season, while Ousmane Dembele has contributed five from the right.

“We must not have one player on whom all the pressure lies,” Enrique added of Barcola, admitting that the biggest issue is the lack of a reliable centre-forward.

Goncalo Ramos was in line to be the first choice in that position, but he picked up an ankle injury minutes into the campaign and is yet to return.

Randal Kolo Muani was signed from Eintracht Frankfurt for €90 million (S$129 million) at the start of last season but has never settled at PSG, despite producing good form for France.

Things have become so bad for Kolo Muani that he has been an unused substitute in the last two games, and a departure in January looks increasingly likely.

“I count on all my players,” insisted Enrique, who has more often deployed either Marco Asensio or Lee Kang-in as a false nine.

In any case, the former Barcelona coach has played down major concerns about his team despite being worried.

“We are scoring more goals, picking up more points, I don’t see any problems,” he said.

“There has maybe been one match in the Champions League in which we were not up to standard but we were much better than our opponents in the other two games.”

Despite that, the coach and his team will ultimately be judged above all on their results in the Champions League, and the pressure is growing.

While PSG have issues in front of goal, Giuliano Simeone, the son of Atletico coach Diego, could play a key part after scoring in the 2-0 Spanish La Liga win over Las Palmas over the weekend.

The striker, deployed on the right wing by his father, burst into the box and swept the ball into the far corner for the team’s first goal.

“Giuliano I see as a football player,” said Diego.

“From the first moment that we decided he would stay with us (in the squad) this season, it’s with the intention that he can help us. He has a responsibility and not a name, I look at it that way… those who run most, play, and those who don’t, play less.”

-AFP