Latest Football Update: Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson scored a rare Champions League goal in a 3-2 win against AC Milan in a tense Group B match at Anfield on Wednesday. Henderson scored in the 69th minute in an enthralling encounter between the two European heavyweights, who had only met twice previously in finals.
Liverpool had previously defeated AC Milan on penalties in one of the greatest Champions League finals of all time in Istanbul in 2005, while Milan had defeated them in 2007 final. Both teams have fallen out of favour in recent years, and while Liverpool won the Champions League in 2019, Milan is back in the competition for the first time in seven years.
Liverpool threatened to riot as Fikayo Tomori's own goal gave them an early lead in a barnstorming start, with fans returning to Anfield for the first time in 18 months for a Champions League night.
Surprisingly, after surviving a storm that featured a Mohamed Salah penalty miss, Milan scored twice in short succession towards the conclusion of the first half, with Ante Rebic and Brahim Diaz decimating the home fans. Milan headed into the halftime break with a commanding 2-1 advantage.
Salah made up for his penalty miss by equalising from close range in the 49th minute, just after Milan had a goal disallowed.
The result was still in doubt until Henderson completed a spectacular Anfield night with a thunderous goal, his first in the tournament in seven years.
"First half an hour we blew them away," Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson said after the match, as mentioned in live football news reports. "Then we got sloppy and stopped doing the things we were doing really well. We let them back into the game and walk in at halftime thinking 'how have we let this happen-"
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic unavailable and several players making their Champions League debut, Milan looked ill-equipped to compete and left behind in the ninth minute when Trent Alexander-Arnold got in on the right side of the area and his cross struck former Chelsea player Tomori and beat Milan keeper Mike Maignan. Milan did crack later in the game, allowing Liverpool to win.