Mohamed Salah reached a personal milestone as Liverpool booked their place in the Champions League last 16 with a hard-fought victory over 10-man Lille at Anfield. The Reds’ talisman opened the scoring in the 34th minute, delicately chipping over goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier after linking up with Curtis Jones’ incisive through ball, marking his 50th European goal for the club.
Despite Lille’s impressive 21-match unbeaten run, they struggled to contain Liverpool after Salah’s opener. The French side came close to holding on, but Salah nearly doubled the lead twice, once missing a one-on-one and then curling a shot narrowly wide.
Lille’s hopes suffered a major blow just before halftime when Aissa Mandi was shown a second yellow card for fouling Luis Diaz, reducing his team to ten men. Incredibly, Lille managed to equalize shortly after the dismissal, as Jonathan David capitalized on a deflected effort to find the net.
Liverpool responded swiftly, reclaiming the lead through Harvey Elliott, whose deflected strike found the back of the net following a cleared corner. Later in the match, Darwin Nunez saw a goal ruled out for offside after Federico Chiesa’s initial attempt was parried.
With this win, Liverpool remain unbeaten in the revamped Champions League, securing seven wins from seven games. They advance as a top-seeded team for the last 16, where they will face one of the play-off winners in March, keeping their ambitions of a sixth European crown very much alive.
