Soccer Football - Champions League - Girona v Liverpool - Estadi Montilivi, Girona, Spain - December 10, 2024 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Albert Gea
GIRONA, Spain (Reuters) -Liverpool maintained their 100% record in this season's Champions League and have a healthy lead at the top of the standings after a 1-0 win at Girona on Tuesday, with the only goal of the game coming from Mohamed Salah's second-half penalty.
A sixth win from six puts Liverpool, already guaranteed at least a playoff place before kickoff, on 18 points, five ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Inter Milan and Brest, while Girona are in 30th place on three points.
Girona suffered their fifth defeat of the competition but made Liverpool work for the victory and in the opening half had chances to take the lead but were foiled by the visitors' keeper Alisson.
Liverpool struggled against a side happy to sit back and bide their time, but found the breakthrough from the penalty spot with Salah converting in the 63rd minute after Luis Diaz was fouled.
"Six wins out of six, you can't ask for much better than that. It's not easy to do or there would be more teams doing it," Liverpool defender Andy Robertson said.
"We've played a lot better than tonight, we weren't at our highest level, but at this point it's about winning the games and securing qualification."
Girona were pinned back in the opening minutes by Liverpool's pressure, with the visitors creating two early chances.
Defender Joe Gomez was denied his first goal for Liverpool by a reaction save from Paulo Gazzaniga from a close-range header, with the keeper also saving a shot from Darwin Nunez minutes later.
Girona, with every player behind the ball, were happy to break on the counter-attack and Liverpool keeper Alisson, making his first appearance since early October after a hamstring injury, was soon called into action.
Daley Blind completely missed a cross on the edge of the six-yard box but the ball fell to Alejandro Frances and Alisson held his effort at the second attempt, and later punched away a shot from Miguel Gutierrez.
"We competed toe to toe, we had our chances and, well, we have to accept that we lost," Girona's Frances said.
"It's time to move on. The main thing was to have chances against a great team and we had them."
Nunez had another effort saved when put through by Salah and Girona responded with a shot from outside the area by Yaser Asprilla which Alisson parried away for a corner, with Girona growing in confidence.
Alisson was again involved in the opening seconds of the second half, saving from Arnaut Danjuma and Liverpool struggled to break down a stubborn Girona defence before a Donny van de Beek foul on Diaz gave Salah his chance from the spot.
Salah missed a penalty in Liverpool's last Champions League game against Real Madrid, but made no mistake this time sending the keeper the wrong way and the ball into the bottom corner.
Girona never really looked like finding an equaliser with Liverpool maintaining possession much better than in the opening half and leaving the Estadi Montilivi with all three points.
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Toby Davis)
