Girona 0-1 Liverpool: Arne Slot’s side maintain their perfect record in the Champions League as Mohamed Salah’s penalty secures all three points in Spain

We are less than two weeks into December and Arne Slot has already toppled Guardiola and City twice this month.

After moving ahead of Pep Guardiola and champions Manchester City with a convincing 2-0 victory ten days ago, this time it was the turn of his little brother, Pere Guardiola, who was left humiliated by Liverpool and the slot machine.

Pere is the president of Girona, owned by the City Football Group, who are among the new arrivals at the top of Europe in their first Champions League campaign. But the gap in quality from these gatecrashers to the very elite sides was highlighted on Tuesday night when Liverpool beat them 1-0.

You don’t have to be a fortune teller to predict the main character. As it always seems to be, Mohamed Salah was the man with the golden keys to turn a draw into a win. He took his goal tally for the season to sixteen and recorded his fiftieth goal in the Champions League.

Even though he looks arguably better than ever at 32, climbing the ladder for most goals in this showpiece event looks like a tall order as three men have already reached triple figures: Cristiano Ronaldo (140), Lionel Messi (129) and Roberto Lewandowski (101).

However, reaching his half-century still represents a huge blow and the highly professional Salah has a number of more realistic records in his sights between now and New Year. He is currently scoring seven games in the league and will be keen to see Jamie Vardy’s 11 games in a row.

However, the next goal he scores will have more historic significance as the Egyptian will equal the great Billy Liddell’s tally for the club and overtake the flying Scot into fourth place on the all-time list. Liddell, born in 1922, was so good that the team was nicknamed ‘Liddellpool’ at the time.

Salahpool doesn’t have the same look, but it feels just as appropriate, with Liverpool’s number 11 contributing to 57 percent of their goals in all competitions and 75 percent in the league. To put it bluntly, where would they be without him?

Certainly not at the top of the Premier League and Champions League, with this victory it is a nice six out of six in Europe. Before a ball was kicked in this campaign, people were discussing Slot’s lack of credibility in European competition with underperformance at Feyenoord.

He made a mockery of that. As he has done with pretty much every preseason prediction, to be honest. Transitional season after Jurgen Klopp? Don’t be silly, he would say. How can Liverpool compete after such a quiet summer period? Improve your current crop of stars with great coaching.

Slot has done that, as almost every Liverpool player has improved under his leadership – including old boys Salah and Virgil van Dijk, as well as former fringe players Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones – and the manager deserves a mountain of credit.

This display was not as shiny as the bald manager’s head, or the standards set in recent months. Although Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga made some good stops, the Reds were far from their best and needed their own No. 1, the return of Alisson, on a number of occasions.

Slot showed his winning mentality as he decried his team’s performance and joked that they had tested Alisson’s true fitness by allowing Girona to run through the defense at will.

It took a questionable penalty to free the stubborn Spaniards and the home side also threatened Liverpool’s backline several times with some zapping counter-attacks. But as they have done all season, Van Dijk and Co held their own to keep another clean sheet.

City’s sister club Girona is one of European football’s success stories of the past decade. They were first promoted to LaLiga in 2017 and are now trying to compete with the three Spanish giants from the capital Madrid and the nearby Catalan city of Barcelona.

Michel, their coach, is someone to look forward to for a big step in the coming years. Manchester City was even mentioned as a landing spot when many thought Guardiola would leave next summer.

There were many familiar faces on display at Estadi Montilivi, with eight Girona players formerly of English clubs. Most notable were ex-Manchester United stars Donny van de Beek and Daley Blind, who missed a glorious early chance to score.

Everton flop Arnaut Danjuma had a number of wild attempts that sailed high and wide from good positions, while ex-Tottenham man Bryan Gil also had chances. Former Watford midfielder Yaser Asprilla also tanned Alisson’s gloves as Michel’s men created a number of openings.

However, another ex-Spurs star Gazzaniga was the favorite of the bunch, making several big stops to deny the likes of Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson and the profligate Darwin Nunez. The failed Uruguayan has just three goals to his name under Slot and must worry about losing his place if Diogo Jota is fit soon.

The deadlock was finally broken just after the hour mark after Van de Beek clipped Diaz’s back heel and brought down the Colombian in the penalty area. After lengthy consultations with the VAR monitor, Salah resigned. Unlike his miss in the last European match against Real Madrid, this time he sent the ball.

So that’s six out of six in Europe, top of the tree in the Premier League. Are you happy with that, Arne? Absolutely not, as the angry Liverpool boss highlighted why mentality could well trump skill in this Reds side and their drive for perfection.