Liverpool complete CL sweep for England, Ronaldo claims new record
PARIS: England has become the first country to have five teams in the knockout stage of the Champions League after Liverpool completed a sweep for Premier League clubs with a 7-0 thrashing of Spartak Moscow on Wednesday.
Liverpool, who have won Europe’s top competition five times, clinched Group ‘E’ after Philippe Coutinho secured his first hat-trick for the club and were joined in the last 16 by former champions FC Porto, Sevilla and Shakhtar Donetsk.
That quartet completed the line-up on the final night of group-stage action that was also notable for another Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals record in the competition.
The Portuguese superstar scored his ninth in the competition this season in reigning champions Real Madrid’s 3-2 win at home to Borussia Dortmund.
In doing so, he became the first player to score in all six Champions League group-stage matches in a season while also equalling his Barcelona rival Lionel Messi’s record of 60 group-stage goals in total.
Liverpool were one of four English teams to top a group, along with Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea completed the sweep, signaling a revival by English clubs after years of underachievement since the west London club were European champions in 2012.
Needing only a draw to qualify, it was all too easy for Liverpool at Anfield, where Coutinho led Liverpool’s dismantling of Spartak with two goals in the opening 15 minutes before completing his first hat-trick for the Reds in the 50th.
Sadio Mane scored twice and there was one each for Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah as Liverpool’s ‘Fab Four’ ran riot and they topped their group by three points from second-placed Sevilla. Spartak finished in third place and dropped into the Europa League.
“Nobody could imagine that it would go like this tonight. It was an all or nothing game for both teams,” said Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp after guiding the Reds into the last 16 for the first time in nine years.
“We opened the game perfectly and after we took the lead we didn’t have to defend. It was a nice night at Anfield.”
Spartak’s defeat meant Sevilla were through regardless of their 1-1 draw with Maribor in Slovenia.
In freezing temperatures, Maribor captain Marcos Tavares scored the opener with Paulo Henrique Ganso coming off the bench to equalise for the Spaniards.
Ukrainian giants Shakhtar are through to the last 16 in Group ‘F’ at the expense of Napoli after beating Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 2-1 in Kharkiv, ending the English club’s unbeaten record in all competitions this season.
Already guaranteed first place, City were caught on the break and failed to become only the seventh club in Champions League history to win every game in the group stage.
“The game didn’t go as we expected, in the first half they were better than us and it was a deserved win for them,” City midfielder Bernardo Silva said. “In the second half we tried to come back, had our chances, but we are not happy. Even though we had already qualified, we wanted the three points.”