By Vivem Soriano
Eagle News Service
Liverpool made a triumphant return in the Champions League knockout stage by crushing Portuguese side Porto with a dominant 5-0 away win in the the first leg of their round-of-16 matchup.
Senegalese winger Sadio Mané was rampant for the Reds, scoring the opening goal of the game at the 25th minute mark.
Mohamed Salah quickly doubled Liverpool’s lead after four minutes as the Reds went to halftime with a 2-0 lead.
But the worst was yet to come for the hapless Porto side as Mané scored again at the 53rd minute.
Roberto Firmino joined the party at the 69th minute with a superb goal on a counter-run to make it 4-0 for the English side.
Mané then completed his hat-trick with a late goal at the 85th minute to cap off the 5-0 win for Liverpool.
This marks Liverpool’s triumphant return to the Champions League knockout stages since 2009, where they lost to rivals and fellow English club Chelsea in the quarterfinals.
Porto, meanwhile, is practically eliminated from the Champions League as they would need to win 6-0 in the return leg at Liverpool’s home pitch to advance outright or to win 5-0 to even force a draw and try to win it at extra time or penalties which is an almost impossible task in Anfield. The Portuguese side entered the match averaging 3 goals in the competition and having only allowed 6 goals in the group stages.
This is only the fifth time the two sides have met in all competitions, with Liverpool winning 3 including this match with the other 2 matches finishing in a draw.
The only time the two sides met in this competiton was in 2001, a quarterfinal matchup which Liverpool won 2-0 on aggregate.
The two sides will face off again in March 6 for the second leg of their matchup in Anfield.