Three delightful individual goals saw Liverpool conclude their league engagements on a winning note as they beat Steve Bruce’s Newcastle 3-1 at St.James Park.
Jurgen Klopp opted to make several changes from the side that had beaten Chelsea 5-3 in their last game, with the Reds’ attacking troika of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah all rested here.
Liverpool suffered a rare defeat this season as Atletico Madrid upset the Reds 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League tie. Atleti have never lost a Champions League knockout game at home under Diego Simeone, and they maintained that proud record against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Here are the LFC player ratings for this game from the Echo. The XI is perhaps Liverpool’s strongest on paper- yet bizarrely, this happened to be the first time that this group of players have taken the pitch together in the current 19/20 season.
An almost perfect weekend for Liverpool- they won 4-0 against Southampton and rivals Man City lost 2-0 to Tottenham, saw the Reds open a 22 point gap over their nearest title rivals heading into the Premier League’s winter break.
The first half wasn’t easy- one could say Southampton had the better chances, but the Reds grew into the game after the interval. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had sealed the deal against West Ham in midweek, got the Reds up and running in the 47th minute.
Skipper Henderson doubled their advantage on the hour mark and Mo Salah netted twice in the last twenty minutes to put the icing on the cake.
Here are the player ratings from local newspaper the Echo.
Henderson excellent, but fine games for Alisson, Firmino and Salah as well.
