It might have been fitting that, on the night the watching Ian Rush’s 65th birthday, the goals flowed at Anfield. Yet even as Liverpool celebrated their most prolific ever No 9, it was more about the man in the No 10 shirt.
The vast majority of Rush’s record 346 goals for Liverpool were penalty-box finishes and if much of Alexis Mac Allister’s best work comes in rather deeper positions, the midfielder displayed his predatory streak. In the process, he ensured that Andoni Iraola’s attempts to rest and rotate, which looked likely to backfire after the worst half-hour of his reign, did not cost Liverpool.
“They were much better than us in the first half, and we were much better in the second half,” said Iraola. If both the teamsheet and the opening stages suggested Iraola was either being generous to his old teammate and assistant Inigo Perez or had underestimated his former sidekick, by the final whistle Liverpool were second in the embryonic Champions League table.
And if they scarcely resembled potential continental champions, Iraola’s taste of European nights at Anfield has brought twin continental comebacks, each featuring a starring role from Mac Allister. It was witnessed by his near namesake, Gary McAllister, himself no stranger to important goals in Europe for Liverpool.
It was the kind of talismanic display that Dominik Szoboszlai provided last season. But with the Hungarian injured and Iraola benching the three biggest signings in Liverpool’s history, they needed someone to supply the inspiration. Mac Allister obliged. “The character, when you are 2-0 down and not playing well, he doesn’t panic,” noted Iraola.
Mac Allister was aided by the excellent Rio Ngumoha while Ronald Araujo’s equaliser again underlined what a fine bit of business Liverpool did by borrowing the Uruguayan from Barcelona. Florian Wirtz, one of the £364m trio held in reserve, came off the bench to score the fourth.
But Mac Allister, scorer of a winner against Atletico Madrid and, on another occasion when Iraola fielded a weakened team, the opener against Tottenham was pivotal. His footballing intelligence gives him an eye for goal. “I'm not tall but I love going in the box,” said the Argentinian. “My dad is a bit smaller than me but he was quite good in the air so maybe it's something I got from him.” So the younger Mac Allister rose highest to glance in a header from Kostas Tsimikas’ corner.
His second showed another attribute for a goalscoring midfielder. “He can arrive inside the box like a No 8,” added Iraola. Mac Allister timed his run into the penalty box perfectly to put Liverpool ahead, crashing in a shot from six yards off the underside of the bar and following a cutback from Ngumoha. “It’s up there with one of the best I’ve played,” said the 18-year-old, who became the youngest player since Michael Owen to make two goals in a game for Liverpool.
The first came when Araujo snuck in at the far post to capitalise on poor defending by Cardona and head in the teenager’s cross. It was, albeit indirectly, a second goal from a corner and a second in as many Champions League games for Araujo. ‘Big Ron’ is proving a big threat from set-pieces.
After Mac Allister doubled his tally for the night, Wirtz drove in Liverpool’s fourth following a pass from Cody Gakpo, who was making his first appearance for a month.
He had been summoned at half-time when Ryan Gravenberch, who had begun as the No 10, moved to right-back in place of Araujo. Iraola had left Liverpool’s three £100m men on the bench. After half an hour, it seemed he would need to summon them straight away. Instead, he waited before introducing Wirtz. By the time Alexander Isak came on, Liverpool led. They had four goals to their name when Bradley Barcola joined them.
Liverpool ended up with a 16th win in 19 group-stage games since the Champions League expanded. For Villarreal a seventh straight away defeat in Europe. It could, though, have been very different. “If you score three goals and play very well in the game and you end up taking home a defeat where you have to analyse it is on the errors we made,” said Perez.
But Villarreal started superbly. Iraola’s version of his strongest available side was his freshest, with six changes. A fixture list of Brighton, Chelsea and Arsenal may have been prominent in his thoughts. Yet Liverpool scarcely showed sharpness at the start. They were strangely passive, applying too little pressure to the players on the ball. Their offside trap malfunctioned. They committed individual mistakes.
The worst came from Virgil van Dijk. An attempt to head the ball back to Alisson was horribly misdirected, the Liverpool captain only finding Georges Mikautadze, who angled a shot past the goalkeeper. Van Dijk had his hands up in apology immediately.
Villarreal’s second came when they pierced the offside trap with two runners. Nathan Saliba slid a pass through; Villarreal had two men played onside by Tsimikas and Sergi Cardona slid his shot past Alisson.
Even after seemingly sealing victory, Liverpool afforded them a lifeline. After conceding three goals to LASK last week, they let Villarreal get a third through Tani Oluwaseyi’s calm far-post finish; the stand-in right-back Gravenberch gave him too much room.
The danger was that Iraola and Perez, who had shared so much, would share the points. This was a reunion for the former double act, even if it seemed that Iraola had not warned his friend about the weather. Perez did not even don a coat in the Merseyside rain. His attire was more suitable for the Spanish sun, even if he had greater regrets. “We didn’t know how to manage the emotion tonight,” he rued.
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