Dominik Szoboszlai delivered a moment of pure football intelligence as Liverpool cruised to a 3-0 UEFA Champions League victory over Marseille at the Orange Velodrome, with preparation proving just as important as execution.
The Hungarian midfielder broke the deadlock in first-half stoppage time, sliding a perfectly weighted free-kick underneath the Marseille wall and into the bottom corner to tilt the contest firmly in the Reds’ favour.
After the final whistle, the Liverpool No.8 lifted the lid on the thinking behind the strike, revealing that the opener was no accident but the result of careful analysis.
“Yeah, I did my homework,” Szoboszlai said after being named Carlsberg Player of the Match. “I got told that if no one is lying down maybe I can have a chance to hit it under the wall and no one was laying down so I tried it, and it worked out.”
That early breakthrough set the tempo, and Liverpool kept their foot on the gas.
As the game wore on, sustained pressure paid dividends again when Marseille goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli turned the ball into his own net, doubling the visitors’ advantage.
Then, shifting through the gears late on, Cody Gakpo applied the finishing touch to seal a convincing European night for the Reds.
The win strengthens Liverpool’s grip on the competition, leaving them well placed in the race for automatic qualification to the Champions League Round of 16.
With momentum clearly on their side, a home victory over Qarabag on matchday eight would secure a top-eight finish in the league phase.
Reflecting on the challenge posed by Roberto De Zerbi’s Marseille, Szoboszlai acknowledged both the difficulty and the preparation that underpinned the performance.
“It’s very good, I’m very happy. It’s really tough, we knew it before, especially with this team, with this coach [Roberto De Zerbi].
“We know what they are able to do and what he is able to do, we saw it in the Premier League when we played against Brighton [& Hove Albion]. But we knew, we were prepared and we take the three points.”
Beyond the immediate result, the Merseyside outfit’s consistency continues to stand out.
The Marseille success extended the Reds’ unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions, a sequence that underlines both resilience and growing cohesion under pressure.
“We take the positive stuff, obviously, that we are unbeaten, but also we have to take into account that there are games you have to win when you play for Liverpool.
“Especially at home, at Anfield, I think we, the fans, everybody deserves to see nice football but for sure the win and that we maybe couldn’t do it as many times as we wanted but we are on it.
“We work on it, we focus on it a lot, we talk between each other a lot and hopefully now this game [will] help us to keep on going.”
With confidence rising and Europe firmly in sight, Arne Slot’s men will now look to build on this performance and keep their Champions League charge moving forward at full pace.
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