Sergino Dest and PSV Eindhoven bagged a well-earned three points over FC Porto, while Alex Freeman and Villarreal could do nothing to stop a Liverpool rally in matchday three of the Champions League.
Porto 0-1 PSV
PSV headed to Estadio do Dragao and claimed its first win of the season’s competition over Porto, moving up to 18th in the standings.
Sergino Dest went the distance for the Farmers, making a key pass, winning five duels, and registering 11 defensive contributions.
The visitors refused to be intimidated by the 31-time Portuguese league champions as they had several opportunities to open the scoring in the first half. However, those attempts were narrowly missed.
PSV finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the 57th minute when Dest passed the ball to Esmir Bajraktarevic on the right side of the 18-yard box. The Bosnian’s cross was redirected by Sven Mijnans, and Guus Til was on the spot to tap it home.
The Dutch champions had a scare in the 73rd minute when the goalkeeper was left out of position, allowing Porto to level the score, but Dest came to the rescue to clear the ball away.
PSV will play at home against Club Brugge on November 4.
Liverpool 4-3 Villarreal
Villarreal let a two-goal lead slip against Liverpool as the Reds clawed their way to a comeback win at Anfield.
Alex Freeman came off the bench to play 30 minutes, completing 95 percent of his passes in the losing effort.
The Yellow Submarine jumped out with the lead in four minutes when the hosts’ poor clearance of an over-the-top pass allowed Georges Mikautadze to gain control and put his shot into the goal. Sergi Cardona doubled their lead near the half-hour mark when he ran onto a through ball from Nathan Saliba to slot it home.
Liverpool cut the deficit six minutes later when Alexis Mac Allister headed in a corner kick. Ronald Araujo levelled the score in the second minute of first-half stoppage time when he met a pass from Rio Ngumoha to head in.
The Reds’ comeback continued in the second half as they took the lead in the 65th minute. Mac Allister was left unmarked to steer in a low cross from Ngumoha.
Florian Wirtz put a stamp on the win three minutes later with a left-footed shot in the 18-yard box.
Villarreal will have a huge mountain to climb on November 4, when they face the current European champions Paris Saint-Germain.
Notes
In other Champions League action, Johnny Cardoso came on to play 21 minutes as 10-man Atletico Madrid shared the points in a 1-1 tie with Stuttgart.
Samuel Adeniran came off the bench to play 25 minutes and registered an assist as LASK Linz got a 3-2 win over Sporting Lisbon.
Mathis Albert was an unused substitute for Borussia Dortmund in the 2-1 win over Sabah.
Giorgio De Marzi was on the bench as Roma beat Slovan Bratislava by a 4-0 scoreline.