Liverpool 4-3 Villarreal: Alexis Mac Allister scores twice as Anfield survives a scare

Liverpool trailed twice against Villarreal at Anfield and still won 4-3, in a seven-goal Champions League league-phase match that swung from one end to the other before Alexis Mac Allister's double either side of the hour mark put the home side in front for good.

Georges Mikautadze put Villarreal ahead inside four minutes with no assist recorded, and Sergi Cardona doubled their lead in the 29th minute, created by Nathan Saliba. Liverpool hit back either side of half-time: Mac Allister headed one back in the 36th minute, assisted by Kostas Tsimikas, and Ronald Araújo headed Liverpool level deep into stoppage time at the end of the first half, in the 45th+2 minute, set up by Rio Ngumoha. Mac Allister's second goal, in the 65th minute from another Ngumoha assist, finally put Liverpool ahead, and substitute Florian Wirtz made it 4-2 three minutes later, teed up by Cody Gakpo. Tani Oluwaseyi pulled one back for Villarreal in the 87th minute, assisted by Ayoze Pérez, but there was no time left for a third Villarreal comeback.

A game Liverpool trailed in for over an hour

The scoreline flatters how comfortable this ultimately looked, because Liverpool spent the better part of an hour chasing the game: 0-2 down inside half an hour, they needed a stoppage-time header from Araújo just to go in level at the break. Two Villarreal players, Alberto Moleiro and Santiago Mouriño, were booked in the first half as the visitors defended increasingly aggressively while trying to protect that lead, and it was only once Liverpool's own changes — Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola all introduced across the second half — added fresh legs that the home side pulled clear.

Mac Allister's goal involvement keeps mounting

Rio Ngumoha was the other name running through Liverpool's comeback: the teenager set up both Araújo's equaliser and Mac Allister's second goal, two assists in the same game that also saw him on the pitch for Mac Allister's first, a header from a Kostas Tsimikas delivery. For Mac Allister himself, a header and a finish in the same match continue a run of direct goal involvement that has made him one of Liverpool's most productive midfielders through the opening month of the league phase, regardless of how shaky the Anfield defence looked in front of him for the first hour here.

Liverpool stay unbeaten in Europe despite mixed domestic form

Liverpool's Champions League record now reads three wins from three, following the 2-1 opening win over Atlético Madrid and the 6-3 away victory at LASK Linz, a far more convincing run than their Premier League form, where they sit 5th on 12 points from seven games after a 0-3 home defeat to Manchester City on 11 October was followed by a 2-1 win at Brentford. Villarreal, by contrast, arrived with a mixed record of their own — a 3-1 home win over Napoli on matchday 2 having followed an opening 2-3 defeat to Borussia Dortmund — and their three goals here matched their best scoring return of the season in the competition, suggesting an attack capable of testing sides even when the result goes against them.

Match facts

• 4' — Georges Mikautadze (Villarreal)
• 29' — Sergi Cardona (Villarreal), assist Nathan Saliba
• 36' — Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool), assist Kostas Tsimikas, header
• 45'+2' — Ronald Araújo (Liverpool), assist Rio Ngumoha, header
• 65' — Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool), assist Rio Ngumoha
• 68' — Florian Wirtz (Liverpool), assist Cody Gakpo
• 87' — Tani Oluwaseyi (Villarreal), assist Ayoze Pérez, volley
• Anfield, Liverpool — Champions League league phase, matchday 3, Tuesday 20 October 2026

What's next

Liverpool's third straight Champions League win keeps them firmly in the top eight of the league phase table, a markedly better return than their up-and-down Premier League campaign has produced so far this season. Villarreal, 12th in La Liga on 9 points from nine games domestically, drop to 1-2 in the league phase but leave Anfield having scored three times away at one of the competition's leading sides — a platform to build from as the matchdays that will decide the top-eight and play-off places start to come thicker and faster.