Liverpool earned a 6-0 victory over Qarabag in the Champions League.
Qarabag head coach Gurban Gurbanov admitted that playing at Anfield ‘affected’ his players as Liverpool delivered a resounding victory.
The Reds delivered a 6-0 triumph over the Azerbaijani visitors in match-day eight of the Champions League group stage. Liverpool were totally dominant throughout, with Alexis Mac Allister at the double, while there were goals from Florian Wirtz - his first in Europe since joining Liverpool - Hugo Ekitike, Mo Salah and Federico Chiesa. The triumph ensured that Arne Slot’s have automatically qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League.
Qarabag, meanwhile, have booked their spot in the knockout phase play-offs. They finished 22nd in the league table, having beaten Benfica, FC Copenhagen and Eintracht Frankfurt, as well as drawing with Chelsea.
But having suffered a sobering loss to Liverpool, Gurbanov confessed his players were unhappy with their performance. He said at his post-match press conference: “The Liverpool stadium affected our players but if we play here again we will be better. After the game we had a talk and the players admitted they can play better. The players weren’t happy because they understood they didn’t play well enough.
“We are sorry that we lost the game. I congratulate Liverpool. If you look at the eight games we have had, we have taken a lot of risks and we did that again here. But we could have played better. We were trying the best we could to get higher up the 24 but the opponents have been getting stronger and there are bigger games ahead. Hopefully we’ll be ready for the play-offs and prepare better.
“Every team has their way of playing. If we had to learn a lesson from this game, it’s not to play like this – we have to play better. Among the eight opponents we had in this opening stage, we didn’t have any easy opponents and the players had the courage to p
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