By JAMES ELLINGWORTH
Not even in a penalty shootout did Liverpool miss Mohamed Salah much.
After leaving the Egyptian striker in England, Liverpool got a badly needed result, beating Inter Milan 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday. Barcelona and Bayern Munich celebrated their comebacks and Chelsea lost.
Salah, a regular penalty taker, was excluded by the team after his public criticism of the leaders last week. Dominik Szoboszlai took center stage in the 88th minute, converting the penalty that secured the victory over one of the best performing teams in the competition.
The victory was even more valuable as it came after a streak of only one victory in 6 games within the different competitions for Arne Slot’s team, which rose to eighth place and is now back in contention for a direct passage to the round of 16. Inter fell to fifth place.
The Liverpool players thought they had taken the lead with a header from Ibrahima Konate in the 31st but, after a video review that lasted several minutes, the referee disallowed the goal. A shot by Virgil van Dijk had crashed the ball into the arm of his teammate Hugo Ekitike.
After taking a goal away from Liverpool, VAR helped the visitors when it detected that Alessandro Bastoni had pulled on the shirt of Florian Wirtz, who fell in the area.
Szoboszlai converted the penalty.
Bayern’s new star shines
17-year-old midfielder Lennart Karl produced an audacious move to continue his impressive scoring start to the Champions League as Bayern Munich beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1, taking the German side to second place behind Arsenal.
Karl scored his third goal in four games in his short career in the Champions League. He did so by controlling Konrad Laimer’s pass with his left foot before volleying from almost no angle over two defenders who were diving to beat the goalkeeper.
Bayern turned around an adverse score with a flurry of three goals in 12 minutes. The visitor took the lead in the 54th with Joshua Kimmich’s own goal after pressure from João Simões on the counterattack.
Serge Gnabry equalized for the Bavarian club in the 65th, when he was left unmarked on a corner kick. Karl scored the second in the 69th and defender Jonathan Tah declared the final 3-1 in the 77th.
Widely regarded as the best young talent in German football this season, Karl became Bayern’s earliest goalscorer in the Champions League in October during his first start in the competition.
Near the end, Canadian Alphonso Davies entered to play his first game since March after a serious knee injury.
Chelsea loses
Chelsea were defeated in the Champions League for the first time in almost three months after Belgian striker Charles De Ketelaere set up the equalizer and scored the winner in the 83rd as Atalanta came back to win 2-1.
Chelsea, which took the lead with a goal from João Pedro, fell out of the top eight automatic qualification spots by falling to 11th place with its second defeat. It was the fourth victory for Atalanta, which climbed to third place.
Gianluca Scamacca tied it 1-1 by heading in a cross from De Ketelaere, who then fired a shot that Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez touched but couldn’t stop.
Koundé scores 2, Yamal sets record
Jules Koundé’s headers three minutes apart gave Barcelona the comeback and a 2-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Marcus Rashford assisted on the first goal in the 50th minute and Lamine Yamal did the same with a cross in the 53rd. That took Yamal to 14 combined goals and assists in the Champions League, breaking a tie with Kylian Mbappé for the most by a player under 19, UEFA reported.
The visitors had gone ahead with a goal from Ansgar Knauff on a counterattack in the 21st minute at the renovated Camp Nou stadium, which still cannot be filled to its full capacity.
They are attested the victory of the Tottenham
Son Heung-min said a late goodbye to Tottenham, his former club, which climbed to ninth place after beating Slavia Prague 3-0 with an own goal and two penalties in a match overshadowed by a dispute over a rainbow flag in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Argentine Julián Álvarez scored for the ninth time in his last nine games in the league phase to lead Atlético de Madrid to a 3-2 comeback victory against PSV Eindhoven.
Marseille held on to beat Union Saint-Gilloise 3-2, whose players and fans twice celebrated what they thought were goals to tie the score, only for both to be ruled out for offside in video reviews.
Folarin Balogun pushed the ball over the line from close range to give Monaco a 1-0 victory over Galatasaray. Gelson Martins scored the only goal in Olympiacos’ 1-0 victory over Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan.
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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes
