Liverpool eased to a 2-0 victory over FC Porto at Anfield in their penultimate group game of the Champions League, having already qualified as winners of the group since match day four and kept their perfect record - five wins from five games.
An early strike in the second half from Thiago Alcantara, followed by Mohammed Salah's 17th goal of the season ensured no problems from the Group B winners.
Despite having qualified and won the group since the last round of games, Jurgen Klopp made just four changes to his team, notably resting the quartet of Virgil van Dijk, Diogo Jota, Trent Alexander Arnold and Fabinho, and gave a European debut to teenager, Tyler Morton.
The visitors were dominant in the opening stages as they needed a win to confirm their place in the round of 16 and should have gone ahead in the 12th minute through Otavio.
Ibrahima Konate was caught in possession which allowed Porto to break through Luis Diaz, who found Otavio with a well placed cross, but the latter's effort was well wide under pressure from Kostas Tsimikas. There was a check for a potential penalty, but VAR saw nothing wrong with the challenge.
Not long after, Porto received a massive blow as their captain, Pepe, who had just returned to full fitness was substituted injured, creating a huge vacuum in the defence of the Portuguese side.
It was almost self-made doom for the visitors as their goalkeeper, Diogo Costa gave them away a couple of times in the first half, which could have made the scoreline worse that it eventually was and further dampen their hopes of qualification.
The goalkeeper's kick first hit Sadio Mane in the face and the ball fell at the feet of Mohammed Salah, but Costa saved his face by making the save. Afterwards, he made a sloppy pass from the back straight at Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, who played in Salah to score but the Egyptian was ruled offside.
Liverpool took the lead just before half time or so they thought as Alcantara played Mane through on goal, who finished into the bottom corner, but VAR review showed he was marginally offside.
Both sides squandered chances in the first half as they entered the interval goalless. Liverpool would, however, break the deadlock not long after the restart.
Chamberlain's free kick was well defended and cleared by the Porto defence, but only as far as Alcantara, whose sizzling low shot found its way through the bodies in the box into the net to break the deadlock. His first goal in the competition since April 2018 for Bayern Munich.
The hosts went in search for a second on the night, which failed to come as they saw another goal, this time from Takumo Minamino also ruled out for offside.
The icing was finally put on the win with about 20 minutes of regulation time left. A fine interchange of play between Jordan Henderson and Salah saw the former release the latter on goal, who calmly slotted into the bottom corner of the post and confirmed Liverpool's 100 per cent record in the group; five wins out of five.
Concluding Thoughts
It was not an unexpected result, giving Liverpool's fine run of form in Europe this season as they have now won all five of their group game matches.
This is the first time they are winning all first five games of the group stages in the Champions League and they have scored 15 goals in the process. Only during the 2017/2018 did they better this tally at this stage with 16 goals.
No gainsaying that Mohammed Salah would be a big miss for the Merseyside outfit when he joins Egypt for the African Cup of Nations in Cameron in January. His strike was his sixth in five games in the competition this season.
Porto now have it all to play for in their last group game as they must avoid defeat against against Atletico Madrid, who themselves need to win to qualify for the knockout stage, barring that AC Milan do not defeat Liverpool. A win however, regardless of AC Milan's result will see Porto through.
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