Liverpool 2-0 Bologna: Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah score

Liverpool were a little chaotic here at times. It was a harder night than many had anticipated against the 13th best team in Italy.

But with Liverpool there is always the beauty that lies within. Here it came from the gilded left foot of Mo Salah. What a shot with fifteen minutes left. What a relief. What a goal.

Liverpool, who have looked largely assured on the watch of their new manager Arne Slot so far this season, started hot here at Anfield. They almost scored in the second minute and then they did, through Alexis MacAllister, nine minutes later. The pass came from Salah and was typical of much of what he did. The 32-year-old remains an eager scorer of goals but also plays with his head up these days. There has been a marked change in that regard.

It looked straight forward for a while but over time it became less so. Liverpool started to make mistakes and on top of that Bologna grew in confidence and made chances. They hit post and bar in the first half and Alisson saved well at the start of the second.

The game was in the balance for a long while and then Salah chose to sit on his end of the see-saw in the 75th minute and that was it. A pass to him out on the right, a drive inside and then a left foot shot so perfectly struck – high and across – that it would have struck the bullseye on a dart board.

And so Liverpool and Slot ease on. Imperfect but winning and always, for many differing reasons, a lot of fun to watch.

Slot’s team selection pointed to intent. Only the inclusion of Darwin Nunez ahead of Diogo Jota could be considered a departure from the Liverpool manager’s first choice eleven. Bologna may have arrived with the feeling of a team in transition – they are 13th in Seria A with one win from six – after losing their coach and a host of players in the summer but Slot clearly wished to make good his team’s fast Champions League start with another victory.

Anfield was expectant rather than excitable at kick-off. They have already grown used to winning under their new coach. But some excellent and slick early football got the home support engaged and Liverpool were ahead by the eleventh minute.

Bologna simply gave Liverpool too much time, respect and space early on. It was as though the Italian team had come to watch their opponents rather than compete against them. It wasn’t to last but it did cost them in the opening stages.

A super combination between Ryan Gravenberch and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the second minute almost laid a goal on a plate for Luis Diaz only for the low cross to be fractionally behind the Colombian. Nunez, behind Diaz, hadn’t made the necessary run into space.

Soon, though, Liverpool were ahead. This time Nunez played his part well, holding off defenders on the edge of the penalty area to lay the ball back to Mo Salah. The Egyptian is a more unselfish player now than he once was and his angled cross – perhaps aimed for Nunez – found MacAllister easing in to space close to goal and the former Brighton star side footed the ball in.

Liverpool were flying and more goals felt imminent. Dominik Szoboszlai side footed an inch wide of the far post after Salah set him up and then Nunez volleyed straight at the goalkeeper and also fired ashot over from 18 yards.

Out of nowhere around the half hour mark, however, Bologna suddenly found a little of themselves. Strange as it sounds they could have scores four times in about ten minutes.

Liverpool didn’t help themselves by coughing up possession cheaply in bad areas on a couple of occasions while Bologna started to press them higher up the field in the hope of just such errors.

Twice the Italians struck the frame of the goal and it was Dan Ndoye on both occasions. A deflected shot on to the bar and then a shot on the turn against the post. After that, in the 33trd minute, a mistake by Alexander-Arnold allowed Kacper Urbanski to shoot across goal and Alisson dived left to save.

It had been an interesting period and one that left Liverpool suddenly seeking the comfort of a second goal. Nunez – not wholly impressive on a night when the chance to leave a mark was his – headed over at the start of the second half while goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski was quickly out to smother at the feet of Alexander-Arnold.

It remained a difficult evening for Liverpool, however. The easy control of the first twenty minutes had gone and in its place was a lack of certainty against opposition that had long since shed its early sense of insecurity and inferiority.

Two more chances arrived for Bologna before we had reached the hour.

First a free-kick 35 yards out was played short and then whipped to the far post where Riccardo Orsolini crept round the back of Alexander-Arnold and brought a sharp low save from Alisson, dropping to his left.

Then, a minute or so later, Bologna broke down the left and worked the ball across the top of the penalty area to Urbanski. The Pole had time to steady himself and shoot but could only drive a shot over the bar when he should have done better.

Bologna deserved to be level by now. They had given Liverpool a better game than had Milan in the opening round of games. Crucially, they hadn’t scored.

Nunez’s night had ended on the hour, replaced by Jota as Slot sought a focal point. After that arrived two almost identical chances for Salah and, to the relief of all apart from the away end, the second one was despatched in to the top corner.

We have seen this move before from Salah. Pick the ball up on the right, drive inside laterally on to left foot and then aim for the far corner. The first time, in the 63rd minute, he missed by a foot. The second time, with fifteen minutes left, the ball fizzed on a perfect arc into the top corner. Beautiful, just beautiful.