Firmino double helps Reds cruise to win over the champions

Liverpool swept aside the champions, with the second biggest buy in their history, Sadio Mane, scoring and starring on his home debut.

He cost £34 million, the shiny, ultra-modern Main Stand £115 million. It is a sign of their ambition. So is Klopp’s high-speed brand of football.

His team have now beaten last season’s top two teams, Arsenal and Leicester.

They have scored four goals against both. They made a landmark occasion notable for the football as well as the ceremony.

Liverpool legends from earlier eras, whether Ian St John or Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish or Jamie Carragher, Alan Kennedy or Sami Hyypia, were paraded on the pitch beforehand.

There were European Cup winners and champions of England, crowd favourites and goal machines.

Liverpool’s past came to see the future look of Anfield. The Merseyside skyline is different now.

The Main Stand towers above the rest of the ground. It is plush and huge. Anfield has been transformed into a 21st-century stadium.

For the first time since 1980, there were more than 50,000 fans there. The majority soon had much to cheer.

James Milner is making the most of his move to left-back. He scored at Tottenham two weeks earlier. He set up a goal this time.

The vice-captain played a penetrative pass to Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian turned sharply away from Robert Huth and drilled a low shot past Kasper Schmeichel. 
Winger Firmino had failed to find the net in three league games as Liverpool’s stand-in striker.

Picked on the wing as Daniel Sturridge was recalled in attack, he proved more prolific inside 12 minutes.

Sturridge should have scored himself, being denied by a brilliant block by Schmeichel after Mane set him up.

Instead a role reversal brought Liverpool a sublime second.

Jordan Henderson provided the defence-splitting pass from the centre circle. Sturridge chased it and, rather than shooting, passed unselfishly and imaginatively with a backheel.

Leicester were carved apart, Mane left utterly unmarked. While Schmeichel got a hand to his shot, it looped in anyway.

Mane already looks money well spent. He has been electric in every game he has played for Liverpool. Klopp’s second costliest summer signing also made his mark.

Georginio Wijnaldum teed up Adam Lallana to rifle a rising shot into the net. A scorer for England last week, he struck for Liverpool this.

It was another crucial contribution because Leicester had been gifted a goal.

Klopp picked a back four with only two specialist defenders. Midfielder Lucas Leiva was operating at centre-back because Dejan Lovren had a black eye. He left a black mark himself by passing straight to Jamie Vardy, who was in no mood to miss an open goal.

Remarkably, they were inches from scoring a second. Simon Mignolet failed to claim Luis Hernandez’s long throw and Huth’s header hit the bar.

It showed the potential problem with this Liverpool team. They might concede too many goals.

They almost let in a second when Riyad Mahrez sent Vardy clear and Mignolet showed his athleticism to block the striker’s shot.

Both Huth and Danny Drinkwater almost found the net too before Mane burst in behind the Leicester defence to tee up Firmino for Liverpool’s fourth goal and his second.

Source: Daily Express

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