How the national media reacted to Liverpool's 3-0 win at Marseille in the Champions League on Wednesday evening
Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool celebrates his goal with Milos Kerkez and team-mates during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league phase match at Velodrome stadium on January 21 2026
Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool celebrates his goal with Milos Kerkez and team-mates during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league phase match at Velodrome stadium on January 21 2026(Image: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
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Now that was much more like it. Liverpool once again highlighted their love for Europe this season when they moved on to 13 games unbeaten in all competitions with an impressive 3-0 win at Marseille on Wednesday evening.
After Dominik Szoboszlai netted a clever free-kick at the end of the first half, Jeremie Frimpong forced an own goal from home goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli before substitute Cody Gakpo secured the triumph late on.
It made for an enjoyable night. And while the ECHO was in attendance and provided our usual level of coverage, here's how the national media viewed a positive result for Arne Slot's side.
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Paul Joyce, formerly of this parish, wrote in The Times that while Mohamed Salah returned, Liverpool no longer overly rely on the Egyptian.
"Mohamed Salah was back," he pens. "Back in a red shirt, back seeking to drive opponents, rather than his manager, to distraction and back in a winning Liverpool team.
"Arne Slot has had little to truly savour of late so he would have enjoyed the wave and thumbs up at the final whistle to the away supporters gathered in a corner of the Stade Velodrome.
"There are different players to the fore now, which meant the returning Salah’s fingerprints were not all over a victory that should have been more emphatic against Marseille, but he played his part.
"A glorious chance to add another layer of gloss to proceedings was spurned by the attacker, yet after everything that transpired at the end of last year when he was a ball of anger this felt like progress. Whatever Liverpool’s domestic travails, their Champions League campaign rolls on far more serenely."
Andy Hunter, another ex-ECHO scribe, looked at the tactical switch from Slot that paid off.
"The margin of Liverpool’s ninth win in 11 European away games could have been greater but, having struggled to turn possession into chances and chances into wins of late, Slot could take satisfaction from a comprehensive triumph all the same.
"Joe Gomez, deputising for the absent Ibrahima Konate, delivered an accomplished display alongside Virgil van Dijk as the Liverpool captain made his 350th appearance for the club.
"Liverpool played with confidence and composure at a passionate Stade Velodrome, where the noise started cranking up an hour and a half before kick-off and never let up.
"Slot deployed the midfield diamond formation that worked effectively in his team’s last European outing, away at Inter, but unlike that night at San Siro there was a place for Mohamed Salah. The Egypt international, dropped against Inter as a consequence of that explosive interview at Leeds, was straight back in the starting line-up following his return from the Africa Cup of Nations."
Lewis Steele of the Daily Mail, who found Liverpool embarrassing at the weekend, was far more enthused this time.
"They have had blemishes in Europe, such as an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven and a rather smash-and-grab loss at Galatasaray, but the Reds have flourished on the European stage this season," he opines.
"Sporadically placed alongside a rather drab domestic campaign have been victories over Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Inter and now Marseille, the midweek nights acting as a tonic to shoddy performances in the Premier League. And this was another win that Slot will take credit for.
"The Dutchman spent his pre-match press conference in France talking about how Marseille boss Roberto De Zerbi is 'one of the best managers in the world' and batting off a bizarre question over whether he thought Xabi Alonso would replace him as Liverpool boss.
"Clearly, Slot is not exactly flavour of the month right now – but there are many merits to his management and one at the very top of that list should be victories like this."
Finally, the tall man Paul Gorst was there for the ECHO and points to how matters have been a little confusing for Liverpool at present.
"It's been a curious time for the Reds in recent months, which has presented a succession of jarring juxtapositions that goes some way to explaining why there has been so much unrest and discord," he says.
"They are the current Premier League champions, who had only won half of their 32 games across all competitions before kick-off; they are now unbeaten in 13 games, but six of them have been draws; Mohamed Salah is the leading scorer of the 21st century who, in his own words, has been 'thrown under the bus' by the club. The contrasts, wherever you look, have been startling."