UEFA Champions League: Liverpool advance despite loss to Inter at Anfield

Liverpool : Liverpool are through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, but the English side were given a fright as Inter threatened an upset in the second leg at Anfield on Tuesday.

Lautaro Martinez’s stunning strike briefly gave Inter hope of a famous comeback, but after Alexis Sanchez was sent off Liverpool sealed their passage to the last eight. The onus was firmly on Inter after their 2-0 defeat in the first leg and, just for a moment midway through the second half, a famous Anfield comeback of another hue looked on the cards. Lautaro Martinez’s stunning strike halved the deficit for the ascendant visitors.

Hope did not spring eternal, though. It barely lasted a minute. A second yellow card for Alexis Sanchez left Inter down to ten, an uphill task became a mountainous one. Jurgen Klopp brought on his wise old heads in midfield and Liverpool played the game out with a degree of comfort.

The Reds, denied by the woodwork either side of half-time through Joel Matip and Mohamed Salah, and again through Salah in the closing stages, are through to the quarter-finals.