After their first defeat under Arne Slot against Nottingham Forest, the pressure was on Liverpool at San Siro on Tuesday evening, but the Reds breezed past AC Milan to get back to winning ways.
Milan 1-3 Liverpool reaction
When Christian Pulisic burst down the right-hand side before shocking Alisson with an inch-perfect strike to give Milan the lead within three minutes, Liverpool’s minds would have flashed back to just a few days prior when Callum Hudson-Odoi struck to secure the points for Forest at Anfield. But Ibrahima Konate quickly eased any building doubts for Slot’s side, heading home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick.
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As it turns out, Liverpool found a weakness in Milan through that set piece and quickly exploited it once more. This time, with Kostas Tsimikas on the corner, it was Virgil van Dijk who headed home to flip the game on its head and hand the Reds the advantage. Then finishing the game off in style through Dominik Szoboszlai’s counter-attack goal, Liverpool made it four wins from five under Slot and his first in the Champions League.
Meanwhile, despite not getting on the scoresheet, one Liverpool forward left many impressed in his first start under Slot. The Guardian’s Sachin Nakrani described Cody Gakpo as “smart”, sharing the player ratings from popular Italian paper Gazzetta Dello Sport.
Gazzetta’s man of the match analysis for Gakpo claims he was a “nightmare” for the hosts: “He starts very wide on the left and almost always jumps towards Calabria and forces Maignan into non-trivial saves. He got the assist for the third goal. For Paulo Fonseca he was a real nightmare.”
The numbers only back that praise up too – playing a starring role with an assist for Szoboszlai’s goal, Gakpo also won seven duels, showing more pace and physicality than usual in an all round excellent display.
"Smart" Gakpo is one to watch under Slot
Amid links to Anthony Gordon in the summer, there were several doubts over the future of Liverpool’s left-hand side. Both Luis Diaz and Gakpo struggled to establish themselves in the role when Liverpool needed them most last season to spark concerns over whether those at Anfield needed a key attacking boost. Those concerns have since been put to bed, however.
Diaz has already got off to a fantastic start under Slot with three goals in four games, before passing the responsibility to Gakpo in the Champions League to get an assist to his name.
This wasn’t the same Gakpo that we often saw under Jurgen Klopp, who didn’t always earn his £120,000 a week salary last term. The quiet, reserved, unconfident player we saw far too many times looked in the past. In his place was a Euro 2024 Golden Boot winner playing in his favoured role under fellow Dutchman Slot. And if that version of Gakpo continues to feature then he’ll be one to watch.
Bouncing back in style after the Forest defeat, Liverpool were able to flex the depth of their quality in Milan to get their Champions League campaign off to the perfect start.