Liverpool racked up back-to-back Champions League wins against Bologna.
Alexis Mac Allister opened the scoring on 10 minutes by following through an enticing cross from Mohamed Salah on the righthand side of the penalty area.
The Reds belatedly doubled their lead in the closing stages courtesy of Salah producing a well-struck effort into the top corner from the edge of the box.
Arne Slot’s side now sit fifth in the league phase after securing maximum points on their 250th appearance in Europe’s elite club competition.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Reds made to work for historic win
Arne Slot had demanded that the Anfield collective fully embraced his first home Champions League outing after their season in the wilderness.
His Liverpool side responded to that rallying cry by producing an early first-half lead, which they held at the interval but were far from comfortable with it.
The latter stages of the opening 45 minutes was reminiscent of the Reds’ defeat at the hands of Atalanta in last season’s Europa League quarter-final.
A three-goal humbling proved a hammer blow to Jurgen Klopp’s farewell tour and his successor must have wondered if history was repeating somewhat.
That pattern continued after the half-time break as the Reds remained under the cosh while struggling to seize their chances at the other end of the pitch.
Slot has never been under any illusions that his current body of work will not be without its teething problems and his charges certainly faced several here.
But the Dutchman has never seen his formative months at the helm as anything other than a trial-and-error process which will require fine-tuning.
Even as the first figurehead in the club’s history to produce eight wins from his opening nine matches in charge, Slot’s charges had to work for their latest.
Enigmatic Nunez holds no surprises
Darwin Nunez’s unpredictability is supposed to be his greatest strength.
With Diogo Jota not considered for involvement from the off despite shaking a foot issue, the much-maligned forward had been offered a rare starring role.
On his day, Nunez can be a real agent of chaos within the front line. His biggest problem is that those days are increasingly few and far between.
Wednesday was yet another example of the Uruguayan in typically ineffectual form with only a strike disalllowed for offside to really show for his efforts.
His evening had started promisingly with a small hand in Alexis Mac Allister opening the scoring from close range but it proved to be another false dawn.
The Kop continues to chant his name with gusto, possibly more in hope than expectation at this stage, but Slot had already seen enough by the hour mark.
It came as little surprise that his number was flashed up to make way for Jota.
Fine margins key to qualification
Liverpool know a thing or two about fine margins.
In the Champions League especially, they have been on the receiving end of both good and ill during recent times but the metric has been given fresh life.
The competition’s new format has already delivered on an early promise that the ‘Swiss Model’ will make the traditional group stage more interesting.
Number crunchers have already forecast that 15 points will be enough to automatically secure a team’s spot in the knockout stage early next year.
Slot’s side are over a third of the way to that target after clinching back-to-back wins over Serie A opposition that moved them from seventh to fifth.
For a while, however, they were easing into position until Benfica’s two late goals in a 4-0 home rout over Atletico Madrid bumped them down a place.
Every goal and point will count double between now and January’s final league phase fixture, especially with sterner opposition on the horizon.
Downing a resilient Bologna may not have given Liverpool an easy win in the short term but it could prove pivotal to securing an early bye into the last-16.