Liverpool 2-0 Union Saint-Gilloise - Player Ratings

It wasn't the prettiest of performances from Liverpool, but they were able to score late in both halves to get the better of Union Saint-Gilloise and maintain their 100% record to the Europa League campaign.

In the first 20 minutes, Liverpool should have been at least two goals up. Mohamed Salah forced the Union Saint-Gilloise keeper into a magnificent save early on, before Darwin Nunez missed an absolute sitter - but the Reds were completely dominating in terms of possession and chances.

Klopp was thankfully able to give his half-time team talk with his side in the lead, courtesy of Ryan Gravenberch's first goal for the club - and never has a first-half performance been more deserving of a goal. The Dutchman was everywhere for the first 45 minutes.

The second-half was particularly dull, with few big chances falling to either side. However, in the 92nd minute, the ball fell kindly to Diogo Jota on the break. The forward took it in his stride, before calmly slotting Liverpool's second into the far bottom corner.

Ultimately Liverpool didn't play as well as usual, but they were able to score twice and get over the line to secure their second Europa League win in as many games.

Here are our player ratings from the game.

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Alisson had virtually nothing to do throughout the game, with Union Saint-Gilloise only registering two tame shots on target. There was one moment where the Brazilian looked a bit shaky from a corner, but the ball was recovered well and the clean sheet was kept.

TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD (RB): 8

Considering it was his first start in over three weeks, Liverpool's right-back had a great game today. He was solid defensively, pinged some superb long-range balls in typical Trent style, and forced the save from Union Saint-Gilloise's number one to allow Gravenberch to score the opener.

IBRAHIMA KONATE (CB): 8

Konate had a brilliant game and demonstrated how important it is for the Reds to keep him fit and in the starting XI as much as humanly possible. Strong, decisive, rapid. The Frenchman has it all.

JARELL QUANSAH (CB): 7

Despite being just 20-years-old and making his European debut, Quansah didn't look out of place in Liverpool's defence - expect to see more of him this season.

KOSTAS TSIMIKAS (LB): 5

Definitely one of Liverpool's weaker player across the 90. The Greek International didn't have a terrible game, but much like against LASK, he was often caught out of position and misplaced a fair few passes.

WATARU ENDO (CM): 7

Had a solid first-half and performed well in the tight spaces, but was hooked at half time for Curtis Jones - more than likely to make use of the Englishman's availability given his domestic suspension.

RYAN GRAVENBERCH (CM): 9

Liverpool have signed an absolute gem in Ryan Gravenberch. He was the best player on the pitch by far - he won fouls for fun, glided past players with ease and of course, he scored his first goal for the club. What a player the Dutchman is, you'd imagine it won't take him long for him to cement himself into Klopp's starting XI long-term.

HARVEY ELLIOTT (CM): 7

An accomplished performance from Liverpool's number 19. He wasn't involved in the Reds' biggest chances of the game, but he did the simple stuff exceptionally well as usual, and kept the game ticking from midfield.

MOHAMED SALAH (RW): 7

The Egyptian had an positive opening 20 minutes, forcing a phenomenal save to deny him the opener, before putting a ball onto a plate for Nunez, only for the striker to unbelievably fail to hit the target. He was fairly anonymous for the remainder of the half and was substituted to preserve his fitness.

DARWIN NUNEZ (ST): 5

After Nunez missed an absolute sitter in the 18th minute, it seemed inevitable that the Uruguayan was going to score a worldie at some point to continue the bizarre history he has of missing the easy chances and scoring the hard ones. Unfortunately that didn't happen and he was hooked at half-time. He simply has to be scoring those, so it's impossible to give him higher than a five.

DIOGO JOTA (LW): 7

After a very anonymous first half, you'd imagine a major reason Jota wasn't replaced at half-time is because of his suspension at the weekend. He livened up slightly in the second half, however, with a few decent chances on goal, before securing the win with a nicely taken finish in the dying moments of the game.

SUBSTITUTES

CURTIS JONES (WATARU ENDO, 45’): 6

The second-half wasn't the most entertaining, nothing of note happened really. Jones played well though, kept possession nicely and did the simple stuff well.

ALEXIS MAC ALLISTER (DARWIN NUNEZ, 45'): 6

Much like Jones, this wasn't the game that Mac Allister was able to show his brilliance, but it was a fine 45 minutes from the Argentine international.

LUIS DIAZ (MOHAMED SALAH, 45'): 6

There weren't many big chances in the second-half, so Diaz was fairly anonymous. However, the winger did make some good runs and was a passing outlet on the right-hand side.

JOE GOMEZ (TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD, 62’): 5

Almost made an instant impact with a good ball for Diaz with his first few touches. However, he wasn't the best defensively and most of Union Saint-Gilloise's attacks came from the right side once Alexander-Arnold went off.

DOMINIK SZOBOSZLAI (RYAN GRAVENBERCH, 79’): 6

Coming on with ten minutes to go but with Liverpool already 1-0 up, his main responsibility was to keep things ticking in the midfield and get Liverpool over the line, and he did his job.