Oxlade-Chamberlain’s fine winner puts Reds top of their Champions League group after Samatta cancels out Wijnaldum goal
JURGEN KLOPP lifted the Champions League trophy last season but only after scraping into the knockout stages with a nerve-shredding win over Napoli in the final group game.
But Liverpool are not simply more of a force in the Premier League but are also looking increasingly experienced in Europe - even when not playing at their best like last night - and they are now on cruise control towards the last 16.
This means they are likely to have qualified for the next stages - Napoli are the visitors to Anfield in three weeks’ time - by the time they travel to Salzburg on December 10.
And that match in Austria could even see Klopp field some of the club’s youngsters just seven days before they face Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup as the senior players will play in the semi-finals of the Fifa Club World Cup 24 hours later in Qatar.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored what proved to be the winner against the Belgian champions in a game which should have been far more straightforward than it turned out.
Despite being far superior to Genk, they were never able to completely relax but it is still proving to be a far more straightforward campaign in the Champions League compared to a year ago.
SIX CHANGES
And the one downside was that Liverpool once again failed to keep a clean sheet - they have managed only three this season - after Ally Samatta levelled with an outstanding header for Genk just before the break.
Even so, incredibly, it is now five years since Liverpool lost a home game in Europe, a 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid in October 2014.
Since then, Liverpool have played 24 matches, won 18 and lost six and while many have featured some mind-boggling drama, this match did not fall into that category.
With one eye on Sunday’s home game with Manchester CIty, and in a bid to bring in “fresh legs and fresh ideas”, Klopp made six changes to the team which grabbed a win from the jaws of defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday
With Bobby Firmino joining Sadio Mane on the subs bench, Oxlade-Chamberlain played in a central position up front before playing out wide in the second half.
Klopp had also told skipper Jordan Henderson to return home yesterday as he was “whiter than a sheet” due to an illness but he will be back at Melwood today in the build-up to such a massive Premier League match at Anfield.
In charge of the game was Slovakian referee Ivan Kruzliak with Virgil an Dijk hoping that the official had a bad memory. Van Dijk was sent off by Kruzliak for Cltic against Inter Milan in 2015 and the Dutchman then claimed: “That is the worst referee I have ever experienced in my career.”
Yet there were certainly no controversies this time. And Liverpool appeared in complete control once Gini Wijnaldum scored from close range with a deft flick into the net after James Milner’s cross bounced off the chest of Genk skipper Sebastien Dewaest.
Naby Keita had a couple of shots blocked within the space of a few seconds, Mo Salah delivered a disappointing finish in a decent position and Van Dijk delivered a comical air kick when trying to volley Alexander-Arnold’s corner into the net.
Liverpool had created 11 efforts on goal while Genk had managed nothing, so the fact the visitors levelled in the 40th minute was ridiculous.
Tanzanian striker Samatta had been denied a decent chance due to an outstanding tackle from Alexander-Arnold but he then scored from Bryan Heynen’s resulting corner. Samatta lost marker Fabinho and got between Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner to score with a quality header.
Yet Oxlade-Chamberlain, who failed to defend his near-post properly, more than made amends with a decent and ultimately important goal early in the second half.
He struck his shot cleanly on the turn but Salah deserved credit for showing great strength and good feet before teeing the ball up for his team-mate.
So while it looked as though Liverpool would score bucketloads after Wijnaldum’s early goal, they ended up making life hard for themselves.
Klopp made changes with Keita, who failed to make too much of an impression, being replaced by Andy Robertson who scored that massive leveller at Aston VIlla on Saturday.
And Oxlade-Chamberlain, who will surely be included in Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad tomorrow, received a standing ovation before making way for Sadio Mane.
It was an excellent performance from Oxlade-Chamberlain and it will be good to see him back in a Three Lions' shirt after so many injury problems.
Divock Origi, playing against his hometown club, also put in a decent shift as a reminder that Liverpool do have more attacking options outside their preferred front three.
There was still the odd scare and Alisson kept out a decent effort from Bryan Heynen but they did enough,
And now, Liverpool really can think about Manchester City on Sunday.
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Pep Guardiola did a bit of a u-turn yesterday with his criticism of Mane because he probably realises that annoying this current Liverpool team is a really bad idea.
Equally, Klopp’s team will have to play much better than they did last night even though they will once again feature in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
But unless they stop conceding silly goals, it is difficult to see them once again going all the way.