Arne Slot’s message heard as Liverpool produce efficiency of the season to batter Galatasaray

Liverpool were at a level that we haven’t seen from the Premier League champions all season as they battered Galatasaray 4-0 at Anfield.

Arne Slot’s side overcame a 1-0 defeat in the first leg last week to produce a performance that has been missing the entire campaign as Dominik Szoboszlai, Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah found the target to book a place in the Champions League quarter-final.

The Reds returned from Istanbul with major question marks posed over Arne Slot’s job and the performances of players within the squad who won the title last year. That pressure was compounded by the Reds’ failure to beat a broken Tottenham side on Sunday.

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An injury-time equaliser from Richarlison earned Spurs a late draw at Anfield to cancel out Dominik Szoboszlai’s opener. The result against a side without a win since the final week of January, 13 absentees and giving Igor Tudor his first point in charge after five games, meant the need to come flying out of the traps on Wednesday was paramount.

The Anfield crowd wanted a reaction and that’s exactly what they got as Liverpool flew out on the front foot looking to level the aggregate scores immediately. Ugurcan Cakir was under early pressure in the away goal before the deadlock was finally broken.

Szoboszlai followed up his weekend strike with his 12th goal of the season, and his fifth in 10 Champions League games, as he arrived from outside the box to cushion a low-driven corner into the far corner.

Liverpool continued to ask all the questions of their opponents in arguably their best half of football all season. 13 shots in total and seven on target were fired at the Galatasaray goal.

Szoboszlai, again at the heart of everything, won a penalty after he was tripped in the box. But the Hungarian wasn’t given the chance from 12 yards to continue his golden touch.

Mohamed Salah so badly wanted to make his mark on the night that he took the ball from the hands of the man of the moment to take the penalty. But the Egyptian’s poorly struck effort was easily saved by Cakir.

The 33-year-old had another chance just minutes later from a position we’re so used to see Salah find the back of the net from, but he didn’t set his effort far enough in the top corner and was comfortably parried away by Cakir. Florian Wirtz was also unable to find a way past the away keeper as he denied the rebound with a double save in the last effort of a hugely positive first half for the hosts.

Despite their dominance in the opening 45, Liverpool had to find another goal to win the tie and that moment in a decisive two minutes just moments into the second-half when Hugo Ekitike finished off a brilliant one-touch move from the Reds, with Szoboszlai the catalyst again.

Just 90 seconds later, Ryan Gravenberch arrived on the edge of the box at the right time to steer Salah’s parried effort into the back of an empty net after Cakir failed to push the ball to safety.

A third goal in five minutes almost followed but for VAR after Wilfried Singo turned Jeremie Frimpong’s cross into his own net, but the Dutchman was offside in the build-up.

Liverpool looked unrecognisable from their struggles this season, for one of the few times this season, Anfield was rocking, the Reds were rolling forward, and Salah even turned back the years with a classic whipped left-footed effort into the far top corner.

It was as perfect a night as possible for Liverpool, until Salah limped off injured late on. A double figure scoreline would have been no surprise given the chances they created. Slot must bottle this feeling ahead of a tough trip to Brighton on Saturday lunchtime in Premier League action.

Liverpool will join Arsenal in being the only English club to reach the quarter-finals despite six clubs progressing to the last 16.

Chelsea and Manchester City were both buried by PSG and Real Madrid respectively on Tuesday, while Newcastle were battered 8-3 on aggregate by Barcelona on Wednesday before Tottenham were knocked out by Atletico Madrid despite giving a good account of themselves.