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A few days ago, Liverpool fans were worried about Roberto Firmino after a nasty eye injury — now the Brazilian striker has laughed off the discomfort after scoring a dramatic winner for the Reds in their blockbuster opener against Neymar's PSG side.
On the opening matchday of the 2018/19 competition the standout performance came from Barcelona with a hat-trick from Lionel Messi as the Blaugrana demolished PSV Eindhoven in Spain.
But the most dramatic action came on Merseyside, where Liverpool began its campaign with a heart-stopper against the Ligue 1 champions at Anfield, with the outcome only clinched inside the final 120 seconds.
Last season Liverpool made it all the way to the Champions League final before being beaten 3-1 by Real Madrid in a disappointing end to the team's run.
This year, Jurgen Klopp's side is drawn with PSG, Napoli and Red Star Belgrade in a tough Group C.
Firmino was in extreme doubt for the key Champions League opener at Anfield after he was taken to hospital for scans on his eye after it was poked by Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen in the Reds' Premier League win last weekend.
Firmino was named on the bench, and in his absence Liverpool gave home fans something to cheer about with two first-half goals to take control of the game, courtesy of Daniel Sturridge and a penalty from James Milner.
However the old defensive frailties, which have largely been absent so far this season, came back to bite the Reds before half-time, as Liverpool failed to clear after an Edison Cavani effort, and Thomas Meunier volleyed the ball home to get PSG back in the game.
The home side started the second half strongly, and just before the hour mark had a Mo Salah goal ruled out for a foul by Sturridge on the PSG goalkeeper.
With 18 minutes left, and the home side holding the one-goal advantage, Firmino came on for Sturridge.
A nervous Anfield crowd watched time tick down, but with seven minutes left Liverpool was punished for not sealing the game — Salah gave the ball away in his own half, and Neymar put the Reds' defence under pressure.
The ball fell to Kylian Mbappe, whose low shot went into the corner of the net to put PSG level on the night at 2-2.
The home side — staring down the effective loss of two points — tried its best to regain the advantage, but it appeared that a draw was going to be the outcome as the game moved into three minutes of stoppage time.
A slip from Mbappe, however, gave the ball to the Reds in a promising position. Joe Gomez found fellow defender Virgil van Dijk, who spread the ball to Firmino on the right — the striker cut inside, then back out before firing a shot across goal into the corner of the net to give Liverpool the lead for good.
The goal produced a massive roar from the Liverpool fans, and Firmino accepted the plaudits from fans and teammates as he saluted the crowd with a hand over his injured eye.
The win gets Liverpool off to a flying start ahead of their next match, an away trip to Napoli in early October.
In the other Group C match, Red Star Belgrade held Napoli to a scoreless draw at home.
If the World Cup had given the impression that Lionel Messi was slipping down soccer's pecking order, the Argentine star made it clear he remained at the top of his game.
Messi scored a record eighth Champions League hat-trick in Barcelona's 4-0 win over PSV Eindhoven.
Messi once again failed in his bid to lift the World Cup trophy this summer in Russia, where he did not play at his best and Argentina lost to France in the round of 16.
But Messi is a different player in the Champions League, a competition he has won four times, and in which he has scored 103 goals.
With his latest hat-trick, he now leads his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo 63-60 in total group-stage goals.
"We were up against Messi, the best in the world," PSV coach Mark van Bommel said.
Ousmane Dembele also scored for Barcelona, which was already 3-0 up when it was reduced to 10 men as defender Samuel Umtiti was sent off with a second yellow card for a hard foul in the 79th minute.
The Group B result extended Barcelona's unbeaten run at home to 27 matches in the Champions League.
In the group's other match, Mauro Icardi volleyed in a superb equaliser for Inter Milan against Tottenham and Matias Vecino headed in the winner in injury time to complete a 2-1 win for the Italian club on its return to Europe's top competition.
Atletico Madrid got their campaign off to a winning start, beating Monaco 2-1 away from home, while Schalke drew 1-1 at home to Porto.
Turkish side Galatasaray had a comfortable 3-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow at home and Borussia Dortmund took three valuable points with a 1-0 away win over Club Brugge in Belgium.
ABC/AP
Topics: sport, soccer, champions-league, england, france, netherlands, spain
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