Champions League: 4 reasons why Barcelona beat Liverpool 3-0 

#2 Liverpool failed to take their chances

Mane was profligate in front of goal

A first glance at the 3-0 scoreline suggests that Barcelona absolutely blew their opponents away and were largely the better team in the contest, but most times, scorelines barely reflect the true story of matches and this was one such occasion where this held true.

For most of the match, the hosts found themselves hanging on for dear life as Liverpool absolutely flew out of the blocks and had the Barcelona defense on the backfoot. Gerard Pique and company struggled to keep up pace with Mane and Salah, with the Merseysiders being very much the better of the two teams for large spells.

The Reds deserved to take something from this match, and the stats underline just how impressive they were.

Klopp’s men incredibly beat Barcelona at the possession game, seeing 51% of the ball while they had 10 shots in total, out of which four were on target, while Barca had five.

Some of the best chances of the game fell to the Premier League title hopefuls, with Mane blazing high over the bar when put through by Jordan Henderson’s delightful ball, while James Milner could only hit Marc-André ter Stegen when he could have found the corner and Salah somehow, inexplicably hit the post with the gaping goal at his mercy.

At this stage of the competition, ties are decided by incredibly small margins and while Liverpool and Barcelona were largely inseparable in terms of play, the Catalans were far more clinical with their chances and this proved to be the telling difference on the night.