Ngumoha assists twice as Liverpool rally from two down to beat Villarreal 4-3

Liverpool recovered from two goals down to defeat Villarreal 4-3 at Anfield on Tuesday, maintaining their winning start in the Champions League. Alexis Mac Allister scored twice and Rio Ngumoha supplied two assists as Andoni Iraola's side secured a third victory in three European matches. BBC Sport's match report detailed a comeback that began before half-time and survived a late Villarreal goal.

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Iraola had made six changes to the team that beat Brentford on Saturday, with Alexander Isak, Bradley Barcola and Florian Wirtz among those starting on the bench. Villarreal took advantage of an early defensive mistake: Virgil van Dijk's attempted header back to Alisson from Renato Veiga's long pass was intercepted by Georges Mikautadze, who finished with his left foot. Sergi Cardona then scored from Nathan Saliba's through ball to put the visitors two ahead.

Mac Allister reduced the deficit in the 36th minute, heading in a corner delivered by Kostas Tsimikas. Ngumoha then created the equaliser shortly before the interval, lifting a pass for Ronald Araujo to finish. Liverpool therefore reached half-time level despite having conceded the opening two goals, with Araujo's contribution coming just before he was replaced as part of a change for the second half.

Wirtz came on for Araujo at the break, while Ryan Gravenberch moved to right-back. Ngumoha subsequently beat Cardona and set up Mac Allister for a close-range finish that put Liverpool ahead for the first time. Wirtz added a left-footed goal, his first for the club this season, to make the score 4-2 and give Liverpool a two-goal advantage of their own.

Villarreal still threatened to take something from the match. Tani Oluwaseyi converted Ayoze Perez's delivery late on to narrow the gap to 4-3, but Liverpool retained their lead through the final whistle. The result left the hosts with nine points from three matches, while Villarreal remained on three points after their third game of the league phase.

Ngumoha's two assists also brought an individual milestone. BBC Sport reported that, at 18 years and 52 days, he became Liverpool's youngest player to record either a goal or an assist in the Champions League. He was replaced by Barcola in the 74th minute and received UEFA's player-of-the-match award after helping turn a two-goal deficit into victory.