Slot won’t be pleased with two late moments v Lille which could yet have consequences for Liverpool | OneFootball

All in all, it was a hugely satisfying night for Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday as they maintained their 100% record in the Champions League and guaranteed a direct passage to the last 16, thus skipping the banana skin of a two-legged play-off round in February.

Mo Salah was back among the goals after a comparative famine by his world-class standards, and Harvey Elliott bagged the winner with just his second goal of the season, with the Reds now assured of finishing either first or second and having a theoretically kinder route through the knockout phase.

Only an incredible late turnaround by Barcelona in a 5-4 thriller against Benfica prevented Arne Slot’s team from securing top spot last night (a draw away to PSV Eindhoven next week would finish the job), although the Dutchman will likely have been irritated by two moments from his own team in stoppage time.

Liverpool picked up two avoidable yellow cards in added time

Liverpool had a one-goal and one-player advantage as the clock ticked beyond the 90-minute mark, although Lille still pushed for a late equaliser and continues to ask questions of the home side.

Alexis Mac Allister was booked for a 92nd-minute foul despite the referee appearing to play advantage (prompting unwanted throwbacks to the Carabao Cup game againt Tottenham a fortnight ago and the controversial winner from Lucas Bergvall).

A couple of minutes later, Elliott was shown a yellow card for delaying the taking of a throw-in as the Reds sought to wind down the clock and relieve the pressure from the visitors.

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Could those moments come back to haunt Liverpool in future games?

Those two bookings mattered little in the context of last night’s action, but they could have consequences for Liverpool further down the line.

Our number 19 had a brilliant game and deserved his match-winning moment, but Slot won’t have been pleased to see him picking up such a cheap yellow card, which thankfully is his first in the Champions League this season.

He’d still need to be booked twice more before the end of the quarter-finals to trigger a suspension, should the Reds continue to be involved in the competition at that point (UEFA.com).

However, Mac Allister is once more walking a tightrope after his fourth booking of the tournament, leaving him just one away from being suspended for the second time in Europe this term, having been ruled out of the win over Girona last month.

With the Argentine on thin ice in that regard, surely he ought not to be risked in what is by and large a meaningless game for Liverpool against PSV next week, other than determining whether we finish first or second in the final table.

The same goes for Ibrahima Konate, who’s on two yellow cards and is also one away from incurring a ban. It’d make no sense to play that duo in Eindhoven, for fear of them being booked and then missing the first leg of our round-of-16 tie in March.

There’s a precedent to be avoided here – when Virgil van Dijk was cautioned in our win over Napoli at the end of the 2018/19 group phase, he was suspended for the first leg against Bayern Munich in the following round, although the Reds’ need for a victory against the Serie A outfit justified his inclusion that night.

There’s no need for Slot to take the risk with Mac Allister or Konate next week, and he’ll just be hoping that the two late yellows on Tuesday don’t come back to bite Liverpool later in the competition.