Diaz hat-trick leads Liverpool win over Leverkusen

Agency :

Liverpool’s Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as they maintained their perfect Champions League campaign with a barnstorming second-half display in a 4-0 victory over Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen at Anfield on Tuesday.

Arne Slot’s men, who top the Premier League table, provisionally lead the standings of Europe’s elite club competition with their fourth win in four matches, with Aston Villa, the only other team with a 100 percent record, playing Club Brugge in their fourth game on Wednesday.

Leverkusen’s loss spoiled the return of manager and former Liverpool hero Alonso, who hoisted the Champions League trophy with the Reds in 2005.

“It’s painful the result more than the performance, probably,” Alonso told Amazon Prime. “But this is the Champions League, this is the highest level, and today it wasn’t enough for us.

“I tried to separate the game and the pain from the result from the nice feelings to come back. I’m really happy and thankful for that reception,” he added on the warm greeting he received from the Anfield crowd.

Alonso was heavily touted as a replacement for former Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp before ruling himself out of the running.

Slot, however, has proved a worthy replacement for Klopp, and his halftime team talk certainly did the trick as they went on to record their 14th win in 16 games this season.