Ryan Gravenberch scored his first Liverpool goal to give his side a hard-fought 2-0 win over the visiting Union St.-Gilloise in their Europa League clash at Anfield on Thursday.
Gravenberch, a deadline day arrival from Bayern Munich, struck in the 44th minute when the midfielder followed up after Union goalkeeper Anthony Moris spilled a long-range shot from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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But Liverpool made hard work of their stubborn Belgian opponents and it wasn’t until Diogo Jota scored in second-half stoppage time that the victory was secured. The Portuguese forward took advantage of a counter-attack and calmly rolled the ball past Moris from inside the box.
Darwin Núñez missed a glorious chance in the first half when he side-footed wide from close range following a low cross by Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted his team could have done better.
“We lost rhythm slightly and gave too many set-pieces away,” he told TNT Sport.
“Should have had more direction and all these kinds of things, but you take what you can get in these moments and I thought we were really mature and professional but we could have been a lot better in a lot of moments.”
With two wins from two, following their opening victory at LASK Linz, Liverpool top Group E with six points. Toulouse are second with four points after a first-half goal by Gabriel Suazo gave them a 1-0 win against LASK.
Reuters contributed to this report.
