On Wednesday night, Mohamed Salah scored the quickest hat-trick in the history of the Champions League in just six minutes of the second half as Liverpool came from behind to defeat Rangers.
Roberto Firmino continued his strong season to lead the Reds to victory.
Scot Arfield had given Rangers the lead inside the first 20 minutes of the game in Glasgow, but Firmino quickly pulled Liverpool even before scoring again to give Liverpool the lead. The first European goal by Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott also received a much-needed one.
The injury-depleted Liverpool team was slow to get going and Rangers had an advantage in possession early on. They also had more opportunities than their illustrious opponents, who had just suffered another domestic defeat in the Premier League.
Even though Liverpool didn’t help themselves, their breakthrough was somewhat well-deserved when it occurred. When Ryan Jack played in Arfield after Fabio Carvalho was mistaken, the home crowd went wild, celebrating their team’s first Champions League goal (excluding qualifiers) in a long twelve years.
If anything, Liverpool’s comeback was sparked by falling behind because Firmino’s seventh goal of a resurgent season didn’t even last seven minutes after Rangers took the lead.
In the end, Jurgen Klopp’s team was the better team in the second half. Firmino was once more involved as Nunez, latching onto the Brazilian’s improvised flick, curled a shot beyond McGregor’s reach.
Then came Salah, who had started out on the bench but was evidently eager to join in after scoring three spectacular goals in quick succession. His first goal came from fellow substitute Diogo Jota, who fired it in from a tight angle. His second and third goals came from very similar spots on the edge of the box, but were curled into different corners.
An offside flag initially disallowed Elliott’s late seventh goal as he turned in a rebound, but VAR intervened and the original ruling was reversed.
After four straight losses, Rangers were eliminated from the Champions League, while Liverpool will advance to the next round if they win on matchday five.