Game's not over till the Red lady sings

This must be some aura, a unique and lethal one. At least for those whom they confront.

It must be dreadful to be a Bournemouth, Newcastle, Arsenal, Burnley, or Atletico Madrid fan these days. They faced the same enemy, and their fate was the same - late death at the hands of Liverpool.

In three of those five games (Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Atleti), the Reds gave away a two-goal cushion only to kill their rivals just when they thought they had survived. It doesn't get worse than that!

Stoppage time should be renamed - Liverpool time! Van Dijk kills Atleti on Isak's debut

Diego Simeone's lot was the last one to be suffocated in the dying minutes in the red cauldron. This time, Virgil van Dijk brought the death penalty, reacting as a genuine striker deep in the stoppage time to take this crazy rollercoaster safely into the hands of the Scousers.

Van Dijk's 93rd-minute winner was the fourth goal Liverpool have scored in the stoppage time across all competitions this season, with six of their eight second-half goals coming from the 88th minute onwards.

And their boss, Arne Slot, couldn't think of a better birthday gift than this 3-2 victory, which proved this Liverpool side is built differently than any other.

Sometimes maybe sloppy, but always resilient.

"A game like this should not have gone to a late winner," Slot said.

"I understand that's the story of this game and the last five games, but for me it is a different game than the ones we played before. We had so many great attacks today where we could have scored the third goal."

Previous games saw Chiesa, Szoboszlai, Salah and Ngumoha getting their deserved 'hero' label, just as VVD on Wednesday night, although probably some of the supporters expected Alexander Isak to shine on his maiden Anfield outing.

Dying-minutes kings under Slot's command

Instead, we saw a bit lukewarm, hour-long debut...

"In the 60 minutes he played, he seemed to be quite fit to me, " Slot said after the match. "It wasn't as if after 10 minutes he was already very tired. He could play at this level quite well after one or two weeks of team sessions.

"He can play football and he's a joy to watch. That is not a surprise to me. He was fitter than I expected, but the fans can't get their hopes too high. We play three times a week and that's a bit too much for him still.

"We have two great number nines [Isak and Hugo Ekitike] and we're going to use both of them throughout their career here."

Liverpool's rivals should be aware that Isak and Ekitike are yet to score in the game's final minutes.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1

Tuesday

Athletic Bilbao - Arsenal 0-2 (0-0)

/Martinelli 72, Trossard 87/

PSV - St. Gilloise 1-3 (0-2)

/Van Bommel 90 - David 9 pen, Ait El Hadj 39, Mac Allister 81/

Benfica - Qarabag 2-3 (2-1)

/Barrenechea 6, Pavlidis 16 - Andrade 30, Duran 48, Kashchuk 86/

Juventus - Dortmund 4-4 (0-0)

/Yildiz 64, Vlahovic 68, 90+4, Kelly 90+6 - Adeyemi 52, Nmecha 65, Couto 75, Bensebaini 83 pen/

Real Madrid - Olympique Marseille 2-1 (1-1)

/Mbappe 29 pen, 81 pen - Weah 22/

Tottenham - Villarreal 1-0 (1-0)

/Luiz Junior 4 og/

Wednesday

Olympiacos - Paphos 0-0

Slavia Prague - Bodo 2-2 (1-0)

/Mbodji 23, 74 - Bassi 78, Fet 90/

Ajax - Inter 0-2 (0-1)

/Thuram 42, 47/

Bayern - Chelsea 3-1 (2-1)

/Chalobah 20 og, Kane 27 pen, 63 - Palmer 29/

Liverpool - Atletico Madrid 3-2 (2-1)

/Robertson 4, Salah 6, Van Dijk 90+2 - Llorente 45+3, 81/

PSG - Atalanta 4-0 (2-0)

/Marquinhos 3, Khvicha 39, Mendes 51, Ramos 90+1/

Thursday

19.45: (2.80) Club Brugge (3.40) Monaco (2.50)

19.45: (3.20) Copenhagen (3.40) Leverkusen (2.25)

22.00: (2.10) Eintr.Frankfurt (3.50) Galatasaray (3.40)

22.00: (1.70) Man.City (3.60) Napoli (5.30)

22.00: (3.15) Newcastle (3.50) Barcelona (2.20)

22.00: (1.08) Sporting (12.0) Kairat Almaty (25.0)

***odds are subject to change***