At least this time there were shots fired.
The only trouble was, long before this bruising Battle of Britain beating was over, almost all of them were flying at will beyond Allan McGregor and into the Rangers net. Yes, Rangers made a decent fist of it for 45 minutes. They even took an early lead when Scott Arfield scored their first goal of an otherwise pretty wretched Champions League group campaign. But just when it seemed as if they might salvage some pride from this performance, they were machine gunned in a second-half blitz that robbed them of whatever dignity they had left on their way through Group A’s trapdoor and out of the competition. Roberto Firmino stole the show with an individual display sprinkled with magic dust.
Then Mo Salah came off the bench to finish off the job with a hat-trick in little more than six second-half minutes as a humbling defeat turned into an utter annihilation. Darwin Nunez pinched one in between times and then, in the dying moments, Harvey Elliott helped himself to Liverpool’s seventh. It was brutal. It was merciless. And it completed a campaign of misery for Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who could scarcely believe what he was witnessing as his team were being butchered.
He’d promised a different approach. He’d hinted at big changes to his line-up. And van Bronckhorst was as good as his word even before a ball was kicked at Ibrox. The safety-first back five, which was rolled out at Anfield, was dismantled in favour of a flat back four. But the big news was at the other end of the teamsheet where Antonio Colak, Ryan Kent and Fashion Sakala made up the Dutchman’s attack, with Alfredo Morelos left watching from the bench. And with Jurgen Klopp balancing his own selection against the backdrop of a weekend visit from Premier League rivals Manchester City, the hope was that Liverpool might have arrived in Glasgow with one eye elsewhere.
Joe Gomez filled in at right-back, Ibrahima Konate at centre-half, with Fabinho in midfield and well-regarded youngsters Elliott plus Fabio Carvalho taking over from superstars Salah and an injured Luis Diaz. This was certainly far from the A-list XI who had disposed of Rangers with such ease eight days previously.
This would be a different story, even though Liverpool’s players tried to take the sting out of the occasion in the opening couple of minutes by keeping the ball almost entirely among themselves. John Lundstram was the first man in a blue shirt to get hold of it and it was the Scouser who then set pulses racing with a delicious diagonal ball that found Sakala darting into the box.
The Zambian ghosted inside Kostas Tsimikas and even though he shanked his shot into the hands of Alisson, a notice of intent had been served. Kent also tried his luck soon after with a curling effort, which flew past the Brazilian’s left-hand post, and the ground began to shake when Ryan Jack then crunched into a tackle on Nunez, leaving the Uruguayan in a crumpled heap.
But if that was deafening, then the earth moved on Glasgow’s south side in 17 minutes when Arfield fired Rangers in front. It was a thing of some beauty too. First Rangers rushed Liverpool into giving up possession, then Colak dropped deep to link with Jack.
Then, in a flash of exchanges, Arfield was racing in through the heart of Alisson’s defence and sizing up his goal.
With a measured swing of his right boot, the net was bulging and Ibrox experienced lift-off.
With Liverpool’s senses rattled Gomez was spooked into an ill-advised backpass, which almost sent Colak in for a second.
But just when Rangers looked to be seizing control, they were undone at the other end – and in lamentable fashion. Tsimikas fired a corner into the front post, where Firmino was outmuscling James Tavernier to
crash a header into the roof of McGregor’s net.
Although the bubble had been burst by the Brazilian’s expert poaching, the air had not gone out of this one yet. And with Sakala’s blistering pace terrifying Tsimikas on Liverpool’s left, another huge chance came for Arfield before half-time. Sakala, having left his marker eating dust, picked Arfield out with a cut back and this time, although the connection was sweet, it was blocked brilliantly by the sliding Konate.
There was a major blow, however, before the break when the outstanding Connor Goldson limped off after feeling something ping in his left thigh. It was left to youngster Leon King to fill his rock-like defensive boots.
And that depleted Rangers backline was being examined straight from the restart as Liverpool came forward in waves of intricate,
imaginative passing. They held out for just 10 minutes before Firmino bagged his second of the night.
Drifting off King’s shoulder to connect with a sweeping cross from Gomez, he beat McGregor with another deadly first-time finish through the keeper’s legs. And these shuddering hits just kept on coming as in no time Jack was down clutching at a calf and having to be replaced by Steven Davis.
And then the knockout blow arrived in the shape of a third Liverpool goal. McGregor’s untidy clearance was hoovered up by Fabinho in midfield and fizzed into Carvalho’s feet. The winger picked out Firmino with a disguised pass and this time the Rangers tormentor impudently flicked it into the path of Nunez, who rolled home from 16 yards as McGregor’s feet were left planted.
Sub Salah struck in 75 minutes, bagging the fourth goal from an improbably tight angle amid ragged Rangers defending. His second was a sublime strike, curled around McGregor from the edge of the box. His third summed up the state Rangers were now in as he drifted easily inside Borna Barisic before bending another one in at McGregor’s right-hand post.
Elliott completed the rout in 86 minutes, stabbing home after Salah had created more mayhem inside the Rangers box.
Not even a hurried linesman’s flag could spare Rangers the ignominy of a seventh, which was rubber-stamped by VAR.
It was a truly chastening experience for van Bronckhorst and his men.
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