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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Charlotte Coates

'A brilliant power play' - national media react to what Jurgen Klopp did for Liverpool at Inter Milan

It is advantage Liverpool after they beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the first leg of their last 16 Champions League clash in the San Siro.

It took until late into the second half before the Reds found a breakthrough and it came from substitute Roberto Firmino before Mohamed Salah added an important second.

Jurgen Klopp went with a defensive pairing of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate as they both kept Liverpool in the game at times.

The Reds showed their European experience and scored twice in quick succession to give themselves a huge advantage going into the second leg at Anfield on Wednesday, March 8.

Plenty of national media outlets were in attendance to watch the win - and here is a round-up of what they had to say.

READ MORE: Liverpool player ratings as Virgil van Dijk excellent and Luis Diaz exciting at Inter Milan

READ MORE: What Virgil van Dijk did to Lautaro Martinez proves Jurgen Klopp right

Late Liverpool strikes down Inter Milan and give Jurgen Klopp’s team one foot in the quarter-finals

Melissa Reddy, via The Independent

"Simone Inzaghi would have been dismayed, but not dumbfounded. Inter Milan’s coach predicted such an ending back in December when the Champions League last-16 draw was made.

“Teams like Liverpool have something more,” he mused. “They always give you the idea that you’re in it, that you can score a goal. Instead, they punish you.”

"And so it came to pass. It was all shaping up for an Inter triumph, persistent pressure blended with winning the duels, but then Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah breached their defence eight minutes apart to enact Inzaghi’s prophecy.

"The scoreline will feel agonising for his charges, but enlivens Liverpool’s ambition of picking up more than one piece of silverware this season."

*Which trophies do you think Liverpool will win this season?:

Firmino and Salah give Liverpool commanding first-leg win over Inter

Andy Hunter, via The Guardian

"For 75 minutes San Siro bounced with a belief and energy befitting Internazionale’s performance.

"By the 83rd it was a stadium of silent disbelief, save for the pocket of jubilant Liverpool fans peering down on a classic European away script from up in the gods. They have seen this before, and they know where it can lead.

"Jurgen Klopp’s team were on the back foot for much of the second half as Ivan Perisic rampaged down the left and Arturo Vidal dominated central midfield.

"But Liverpool were superior where it mattered most and took a significant step towards the Champions League quarter-finals courtesy of two late strikes in eight minutes from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah. Ruthlessness and experience won out.

"It is now seven wins in seven Champions League games for the six-time winners and nine wins from the past 12 European away games.

"Salah’s strike, his 24th of the season, extended his club-record run of scoring in consecutive European away games to eight. And to think he looked tired after the recent demands of the Africa Cup of Nations."

Inter Milan 0-2 Liverpool: Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah strikes earn smash-and-grab win at the San Siro as Reds score twice in eight minutes late on after withstanding heavy pressure from Inter Milan

Martin Samuel, via The Daily Mail

" Jurgen Klopp won this game for Liverpool. Sure, the results section will credit Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah, but this was the manager’s triumph.

"More than any individual in a red shirt, he changed the direction of the match, turned a performance that was quite possibly going to end in defeat, into an unlikely and important triumph.

"Liverpool couldn’t get out of their half. That was the reality when Klopp made a rare triple substitution after 60 minutes. They were pinned back, overrun.

"They couldn’t breathe such was Inter Milan’s second-half pressure. The Italians were getting closer and closer. So Klopp acted.

"He ditched Sadio Mane for Luis Diaz, he brought on Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita for Fabinho and Harvey Elliott in midfield. And that changed the game. Liverpool were no longer overwhelmed.

"It was a brilliant power play, a product of having such strength in depth but also the work of a manager smart enough to know when to use it."

Liverpool weather Inter Milan storm and strike late to silence San Siro

Jason Burt, via The Telegraph

"There is so much understandable talk of a changing of the guard along Liverpool’s frontline with the arrival of Luis Diaz and the blossoming of Diogo Jota that it is forgotten what a decisive performer Roberto Firmino can still be.

"The Brazilian appears to have lost his place in the famed attacking trident, for the big games at least, but he emerged after half-time to replace the injured Jota and make the vital breakthrough in the first leg of this Champions League tie which was actually in danger of running away from Liverpool.

"Firmino’s smart header came just as Inter Milan surely seemed destined to score, such was their second-half dominance, but it is Liverpool who emphatically are in control before the return fixture next month with Mohamed Salah adding a second goal – his 24th of the season - to press home that advantage.

"It is also now eight Champions League away games in a row in which Salah has scored and that is some record."

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