LONDON: Juergen Klopp had just seen his Liverpool team slice open Hoffenheim to score a third goal in the opening 21 minutes when he turned to the celebrating Anfield crowd and roared: “That’s football!”

Liverpool returned to the Champions League group stage in some style on Wednesday.

With the attacking trio of Roberto Firmino, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane combining brilliantly, Liverpool beat Hoffenheim 4-2, completing a 6-3 aggregate victory, with a devastating attacking display to seal a return to Europe’s elite club competition after a two-season absence.

“I do not have enough words. It is amazing,” Liverpool manager Klopp told BT Sport. “It is 14 months of the hardest work and it feels amazing.

“A big, big, big compliment to my team. The start of the game was like a thunderstorm. We were so dangerous, so clinical. We could have scored even more.”

Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon also went on the rampage, scoring four times in the last half hour to beat former European champions Steaua Bucharest, now known as FCSB, 5-1 away after they had been held 0-0 at home in the first leg.

Qarabag became the first team from Azerbaijan to reach the group stage when they qualified on away goals after losing 2-1 away to FC Copenhagen, while APOEL Nicosia and CSKA Moscow also went through.

Hoffenheim are playing in European competition for the first time in their history this season and were swept away on another atmospheric night at Anfield.

Liverpool looked like scoring every time they attacked against Hoffenheim and could easily have hit double figures although their defence looked vulnerable.

Emre Can broke through in the 10th minute when his shot was deflected off Kevin Vogt and beat Oliver Baumann inside his near post, the start of a long night for the Hoffenheim goalkeeper.

Egyptian winger Salah struck in the 18th minute, tapping in from close range after Georginio Wijnaldum’s shot from Firmino’s left-wing cut-back bounced back off the right-hand post.

The third goal was masterful, with Mane breaking clear, cutting inside and backheeling the ball to Firmino, whose cross to the far post was tucked home on the volley by Can.

Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann quickly made a tactical substitution, replacing Havard Nordtveit with Mark Uth, who almost immediately pulled one back with an angled shot.

The Germans began to look threatening as Serge Gnabry twice went close and Uth forced Simon Mignolet to prevent a second goal which could have changed the complexion of the game.

Firmino ended Hoffenheim’s hopes in the 64th minute with an easy finish after Vogt was dispossessed by Jordan Henderson, before Sandro Wagner headed one more for Hoffenheim from Andrej Kramaric’s left-wing cross.

“We were running around like headless chickens,” Nagelsmann said of his team’s display in the first 30 minutes, “and they were scoring the kind of goals they always score in the Premier League.” “Sometimes,” he added, “you just have to admit your opponent is better.”

QARABAG BREAKTHROUGH

Seydou Doumbia gave Sporting a 13th-minute lead in Bucharest but Brazilian Junior Morais quickly replied for Steaua, who then put the visitors under pressure.

The turning point came on the hour when Marcos Acuna latched onto a Bruno Fernandes through ball, goalkeeper Florin Nita was caught in no man’s land and the Argentine scored coolly.

FCSB lost their composure as Gelson Martins, Bas Dost and Rodrigo Battaglia added further goals.

At the fourth time of asking, Qarabag have made it through to the group stage.

South African Dino Ndlovu was Qarabag’s hero as he scored in the 63rd minute, his fourth goal of the competition, to cancel out Federico Santander’s scrambled opener for FC Copenhagen on the stroke of halftime.

Andrija Pavlovic rekindled Copenhagen’s hopes by scoring in the 66th minute but Qarabag — who had never previously progressed beyond the third round of qualifying — held out for a 2-2 aggregate draw to qualify on away goals thanks to Ndlovu’s effort.

APOEL produced one of the most unlikely Champions League story lines in recent times in 2012 by becoming the first Cypriot team to reach the quarter-finals.

They are back in the group stage for the third time after a goalless stalemate at Slavia Prague, securing a 2-0 win on aggregate.

CSKA reached the group stage for the fifth straight year after Georgi Schennikov and Alan Dzagoev scored in a 2-0 win over Switzerland’s Young Boys, completing a 3-0 aggregate win.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2017