Van Dijk scores last-gasp winner to bail Reds out

ALEXANDER ISAK must have felt like he was walking on the River Mersey for a while before it all seemed to have gone so horribly wrong.

But it was his new captain that showed the killer touch of a top striker with a great header to clinch victory just when it seemed Arne A lot’s side had blown it.

5 Liverpool continued their perfect start to the season with a 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid Credit: Getty

5 Andy Robertson broke the deadlock with a thumping finish in the fourth minute Credit: REUTERS

5 Mohamed Salah doubled the Reds' lead two minutes later Credit: GETTY

They were two goals ahead inside just 332 seconds thanks to goals from Andy Robertson and Mo Salah, but Clement Lengelt produced a stunning comeback double.

The Atletico Madrid midfielder looked to have spoiled what should have been the perfect introduction for the British record buy as he made a much faster start to his Anfield career than Arne Slot had predicted.

By that point, after those two stunning early strikes, Isak will surely have believed that the strike, the controversy, the waiting for months to get his British transfer record move away from the Tyne and to Merseyside was all worth it.

The striker finds himself at the centre of the £426M remodel that threatens to sweep through all of Europe and is currently the case with the defending Prem champions, even if Marcos Llorente fluttered a few Kop heartbeats with a strike just before the break.

Slot, celebrating his 47th birthday last night, won the title at the first time of asking and did so in a canter, spending just £10M on Federico Chiesa.

This summer, backed by owners Fenway Sports Group and the rest of the Kop hierarchy, he put together a collection of talent that, on current results, suggests Liverpool are en-route to replacing Manchester City as the team of the ages.

Slot had told us Isak was still catching up on fitness having been left out of the squad that struggled to Sunday’s 1 – 0 win at Burnley and the suggestion was that he would begin his new club’s European campaign from the bench.

Instead, to the delight of the slavering home fans who are already convinced they are watching a team that can be as dominant as any wearing their red in the club’s history, he was named as the replacement of one of the new influx of £69M Hugo Ekitike.

5 Marcos Llorente thought his brace had bagged the visitors a point Credit: Getty

5 Virgil van Dijk scored a last-gasp winner with a thumping header in the 92nd minute Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK

No doubt he won’t be a bystander for long, having almost certainly looked on in awe as Salah constructed that sensational two–goal lead inside the first six minutes.

Slot considers the 25-year-old, who scored 62 goals in three seasons for Toon, as “probably the best striker in the world”.

With the talent around him, even if Erling Haaland would have something to say about that assertion – quite apart from his Manchester  City boss Pep Guardiola, who most certainly does – he might prove his new manager right.

For sure, he has vision and touch. Three minutes before the break, he showed real class in the way he collected a pass from – yet another – new talent in £100M Florian Wiortz.

From the edge of the box, his return touch was perfect and had yet another of the summer arrivals in £30M Jeremie Frimpong not bust on the scene uninvited before completely missing his kick, the German might have had his first goal since his entrance from Bayer Leverkusen.

That early double created Liverpool history – never had the Anfield side been two ahead so quickly in any European tie in the club’s history.

More of that was made because, for the first time ever, Liverpool did not feature an Englishman in a club competition.

The only one on the pitch was in an Atletico Madrid shirt in the shape of Conor Gallagher.

But nationalities meant nothing to The Kop thanks to that scintillating start three minutes and 32 seconds in.

Salah fired a low cross into the Spanish box and Andy Robertson, back in place of £40M Sunday diver Milos Kerkez, reacted with a flick that deflected off Pablo Barrios to give him his first European strike in six years.

Anfield’s  Egyptian king, who, despite his side’s four-game 100% winning start in the defence of their Prem title had been quiet despite his penalty winner on the weekend visit to Turf Moor, then doubled the lead 120 seconds later.

There was true majesty about his strike, too, as he cut in on a trademark swerve left before depositing beyond Jan Oblak.

Liverpool would have been granted the most ridiculous penalty in Champions League history had referee Maurizio Mariani not been alerted by VAR that he had just made a fool of himself.

He adjudged that Lengelet had fouled Frimpong in the 35th minute there was absolutely none at all.

The one problem Slot faced last season in that cakewalk to the title was a lack of focus at the back.

And that weakness resurfaced again as Diego Simeone’s side cut the deficit three minutes into first half stoppage time.

And that’s when it all threatened to go so very badly wrong.

Llorente, criminally not picked up as he moved forward, poked the ball home and despite a VAR check that should have ruled for offside the vibrant mood went flat.

Isak lasted 58 minutes before being replaced by Ekitike, while Conor Bradley and Alexis MacAlister took over from Frimpong and Cody Gakpo.

Slot’ attempt at firing things up should have worked, too, and Salah should have eased those flutters, but somehow hit Dominic Szolobzai’s perfect lay-off against the post.

But the price seemed to have been paid as Lengeled volleyed home his second nine minutes from time, except that skipper van Dijk had the last say – before Simeone got himself tangled in a ruck with the crowd near the dugout – and was given a red card.

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