Mohamed Salah's clipped finish and quickfire goals at the start of the second half from Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott took Liverpool to a 3-0 win at Ajax which sends them into the Champions League last-16 as Group A runners-up.
2022/2023 UEFA Champions League
0-3
Match Report
The visitors should have been a couple of goals behind in Amsterdam by the time Salah (42) latched onto Jordan Henderson's outside-of-the-boot pass and finished first-time for his sixth strike in five Champions League games this term.
Steven Berghuis had smacked a shot against the post just three minutes in and Dusan Tadic would have expected to score when his effort was blocked by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Liverpool had struggled to get up the pitch for most of that opening period but finished the half strongly and were kicking themselves for not going in two clear at the break when Nunez somehow hit the back post from Roberto Firmino's inviting pass.
They were soon out of sight at the start of the second period, though, with Nunez (49) powerfully heading in from a corner to make up for that bad miss and Salah then feeding a pass through for Elliott (52) to smack home at the near post, as a three-minute blitz all-but ended the contest.
Napoli's comfortable win over Rangers ensured they finished top of the pile in this pool but Liverpool's victory - in their 150th Champions League match - means they can now rest key players for their home game with the Italian side on Tuesday. That will be welcomed by boss Jurgen Klopp, given the injuries he's currently dealing with.
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
2' Ajax hits the post
34' Robertson's shot wide out
41' GOAL! Ajax 0-1 Liverpool (Salah)
44' CLOSE! Nunez hits the post
48' GOAL! Ajax 0-2 Liverpool (Darwin Núñez)
51' GOAL! Ajax 0-3 Liverpool (Elliott)
Line-ups
Ajax XI: Tadic, Remko Pasveer, Blind, Berghuis, Klaassen, Bergwijn, Jorge Sánchez, Alvarez, Calvin Bassey, Jurrien Timber, Brian Brobbey
Subs: Stekelenburg, Magallan, Ocampos, Grillitsch, Owen Wijndal, Mohammed Kudus, Lorenzo Lucca, Kenneth Taylor, Francisco Conceição, Devyne Rensch, Jay Gorter
Liverpool XI: Henderson, Alisson, Firmino, Salah, Van Dijk, Fabinho, Robertson, Joe Gomez, Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Núñez, Elliott
Subs: Milner, Adrian, Tsimikas, Kelleher, Konate, Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones, Nathaniel Phillips, Calvin Ramsay, Stefan Bajcetic