On Thursday night, Liverpool advanced a step in the Europa League playoffs with a 4-1 victory over French club Toulouse.

The game was kicked off by Diogo Jota, but the resiliency shown by Toulouse was epitomized by Thijs Dallinga, who scored against the run of play. Wataru Endo scored first for Liverpool, and they went on to take a commanding lead thanks to goals from Darwin Nunez and the halftime substitute.

Later on, match MVP Ryan Gravenberch placed the cherry on top for Liverpool, and in added time, Mohamed Salah, who came on as a substitute, scored Liverpool’s fifth and final goal.

What happened during the game

Jota breezed past the defenders and calmly found the bottom left corner to give Liverpool the lead within the first ten minutes. The Reds maintained their control, and Toulouse’s goalkeeper, Guillaume Restes, had to be on the lookout for a shot from Nunez when the latter sat down his man and repositioned himself to take advantage of a narrower angle.

In light of this, Toulouse’s equalizer sprang out of nowhere and was surprisingly easy to score. Dallinga had a ton of room to work with during a counterattack, and despite Trent Alexander-Arnold’s best efforts, he was able to beat Caoimhin Kelleher.

The goal stunned the Anfield fans, and it took a return to fundamentals from a set piece to regain the lead. For a quick corner, Harvey Elliott looked to Curtis Jones in the corner, and Jones promptly laid it back to Alexander-Arnold. The Liverpool captain for the evening had time to pick his area before sending in a cross that Endo was able to score on.

Even before the halftime whistle blew, Nunez scored Liverpool’s third goal. After Jones’ initial shot was blocked, the Uruguayan was able to get a clean shot off with his left foot and into the back of the net. With his bold charge, Gravenberch had made the entire affair possible.

Kelleher, who had been mainly inactive until the second half, nearly gave Toulouse a second goal shortly after the break thanks to a disastrously mishandled ball out of defense. But Alexander-Arnold saved the day by deflecting a goal-bound shot from Gabriel Suazo.

Gravenberch, determined to score a fourth, stung Restes with an unconventional save. Endo, ever the daredevil, had a hand in pushing things forward and having witnessed his own attempt fall just short. At the hour mark, Restes was blocking again in front of the outstanding Gravenberch.

Liverpool still wasn’t completely convincing at the back, leaving too many openings and making too many careless passes, giving Toulouse hope they didn’t deserve. However, they became unreachable after Gravenberch scored a goal in recognition of his own performance. Nunez should have gotten the credit; he did all the hard work by beating his defender and going around Restes, but he missed a wide-open goal by hitting the post. Gravenberch chased after the loose ball and buried the second chance.

Salah scored the game-winning goal in the 94th minute, with his shot from the center of the penalty area narrowly missing the underside of the crossbar.

Liverpool player ratings (4-3-3)

GK: Caoimhin Kelleher (5/10). Didn’t have much to do, and a concentration slip nearly let Toulouse back in.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (c): 7/10 RB Responsible for Toulouse’s equalizer, but scored Liverpool’s winner and made a key goal-line block.

CB: Joe Gomez (6/10). Saw a lot of the ball as Liverpool dominated possession and did well. Team defense, not convincig.

Joel Matip – 6/10 – Once again had the ball at his feet, but was not solid and gave Toulouse too many chances.

Luke Chambers: 5/10 – A full debut but a tough night for the youngster.

Curtis Jones (8/10) Created multiple opportunities by ingeniously pulling the cord.

Wataru Endo scored Liverpool’s first headed goal since April (8/10). He tried hard to move forward and played his best since joining.

Ryan Gravenberch: 9/10 – Another all-action Europa League performance. His powerful run set up the third goal and kept Liverpool in charge. Well-deserved goal.

Diogo Jota (7/10) started well and broke the deadlock early.

ST: Darwin Nunez (7/10). Clinical goal, but squandered an easy second-half chance with an open net. Gravenberch won the rebound and laughed.

Harvey Elliott, 6/10, LW Found it hard to match his aggressive colleagues’ influence.

Substitutes

Nunez’s 66′ substitute: Calum Scanlon – 6/10

67′ Alexander-Arnold substitute Cody Gakpo – 6/10

Replacement: Jarell Quansah (67′ for Chambers). – 6/10

Mohamed Salah enters at 70′ for Gravenberch. – 7/10

Sub: James McConnell (88′ for Jones)—N/A

Subs not used: Alisson, Jaros, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Diaz.

Manager

Jurgen Klopp – 8/10 – The starting XI was changed frequently to keep players fresh. It worked but didn’t require some of his greatest stars.