LONDON: When a breakthrough is proving elusive, Liverpool can still prosper from a set piece.

After 75 minutes of caution, even tedium, in the Champions League at Inter Milan, Andy Robertson swung in a corner that was met at the near post by Roberto Firmino glancing in a header, with his back to goal.

Once Mohamed Salah found the net in the 83rd minute it ensured the six-time European champions secured a 2-0 win in the round of 16 first leg on Wednesday.

It was a free kick from Robertson in the 75th minute that created the opening for the second at San Siro as Liverpool scored from the game’s only two shots on target.

With their resistance broken, the errors started to creep in for Inter and Salah pounced when they failed to clear a long ball into the box to put the game to bed seven minutes from time.

The hosts only partially cleared before the ball found its way back to Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose cross into the penalty area was nodded down by Virgil van Dijk. Salah was primed unmarked centrally to produce a shot that deflected past goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Even with the away goals rule no longer in force, the victory puts the 2019 Champions League winners in a commanding position ahead of the return leg on March 8 at Anfield.

“Tough place to come, a very good team, difficult to break down and I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the crowd. A good result to take back to Anfield,” Van Dijk said to BT Sport.

“Everyone expects to be under pressure, it is the Champions League. The message before was you need to be ready to suffer and do the hard work. It is a very good performance, clean sheet and happy days.”

The result was harsh on Italian champions Inter, who dominated the contest in front of a passionate home crowd for long periods after the break and struck the woodwork through Hakan Calhanoglu in the 16th minute.

However they could not find their way past a Liverpool backline impeccably marshalled by Virgil van Dijk and were punished late on by a Reds team who have now won their last seven matches in all competitions.

The last eight now looks a step too far for Inter after making the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time in a decade, leaving Juventus as Italy’s only real hope of success in the competition.

“This performance should give us plenty of confidence because we played a great game,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said. “We did not deserve to lose but that’s football. I think we can be proud because we played a great game against one of the best teams in Europe.

The night’s other first leg produced a far tighter result with Bayern Munich needing a goal from Kingsley Coman in the 90th minute to recover a 1-1 draw at Salzburg.

“Someone who isn’t a Bayern fan might say Salzburg deserved it today, but I think it was a fair result,” Bayern’s stand-in captain Thomas Mueller told DAZN after his side battled their way back into the tie in the second half.

Bayern went into the tie as clear favourites after winning all six of their group-stage games but arrived in Austria reeling from a shock 4-2 thrashing by Bochum in the Bundesliga.

Julian Nagelsmann’s side were kept at bay early on by a highly disciplined Salzburg, who qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time in their history under 33-year-old coach Matthias Jaissle in his debut season in charge.

The Austrian side took the lead midway through the first half with a goal on the counterattack from Chukwubuike Adamu.

Adamu, 20, had come on in the 12th minute after starting striker Noah Okafor went off injured.

But Frenchman Coman, who struck the winning goal for Bayern in the 2020 Champions League final, ensured the six-times winners left with a draw when he appeared at the far post to meet a Mueller header and tuck the ball into the net from close range.

“It feels a bit like a defeat when you concede such a late goal, but 1-1 is a good result,” said Salzburg striker Karim Adeyemi.

“We are young, hungry and full of energy and we want to irritate Bayern,” he added with an eye on the second leg in Munich.

Bayern’s Joshua Kimmich lamented a lack of intensity from his side before the interval.

“We didn’t do quite enough in the first half, we weren’t focused enough, we didn’t win the second balls and that allowed Salzburg to have dangerous opportunities on the counter,” he said. “We controlled the game better in the second half and applied more pressure and got the draw in the end which for me is a good result.”

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2022