Virgil van Dijk scored a dramatic late winner to grab Liverpool a 3-2 Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid, while Paris Saint-Germain kicked off their title defence by thrashing Atalanta on Wednesday.
Liverpool, with club-record signing Alexander Isak on debut, raced into a two-goal lead inside the first six minutes as Atletico struggled to get out of their own half on Merseyside.
A Mohamed Salah free-kick flew in off Andy Robertson for a fortuitous fourth-minute opener, before the Egyptian forward collected Ryan Gravenberch’s pass and slotted into the bottom corner.
But Atletico eased themselves into the game and halved the deficit in first-half injury time.
Marcos Llorente, who scored twice in Atletico’s famous last-16 win at Anfield five years ago, stabbed the ball beyond a diving Alisson Becker from the edge of the box.
Liverpool missed several chances to restore their advantage, including a glaring miss from Salah when he struck the post, and Llorente made them pay with a deflected late volley to draw Diego Simeone’s men level.
But Arne Slot’s English champions have won all four of their opening Premier League games of the season with winners inside the last 10 minutes.
This time it was skipper Van Dijk who produced the big moment with an excellent header from Dominik Szoboszlai’s corner in the 92nd minute.
“We found a way again… Glad we got the win,” Van Dijk told TNT Sports. “Today I was the lucky one with the winner and we move on.”
Atletico coach Simeone was shown a red card after a confrontation with Liverpool fans following Van Dijk’s goal.
