Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino clinch Liverpool win at Inter Milan in Champions League

Liverpool executed an old-fashioned European smash and grab in the San Siro as goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah handed them a huge advantage against Inter Milan

Jurgen Klopp's side were well below their best, especially for 30 minutes of the second half, but have the knack of knowing how to win when it matters and late goals left their opponents with a 2-0 deficit to overcome at Anfield in the second leg of this Champions League last-16 tie next month.

At Burnley on Sunday they had proved they can grind out results in difficult circumstances but this was something of a step up in class against the defending Serie A champions.

But with Virgil Van Dijk at times seemingly single-handedly holding the defence together, they weathered what storm there was and struck with clinical efficiency like the Liverpool sides of old in Europe.

Half-time substitute Firmino produced a superb flicked header from Andy Robertson's inswinging 75th-minute corner and eight minutes later Salah's deflected shot — the eight successive Champions League away game in which he has scored — made Inter's task all the more difficult.

“Tough place to come, a very good team, difficult to break down and I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the crowd,” said Van Dijk. “Set-piece again and it's good strength of ours. A good result to take back to Anfield.”

The gamble of handing teenager Harvey Elliott his first Champions League appearance with a place in the starting line-up, making him Liverpool's youngest player in the competition, excluding qualifiers, by surpassing teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold (18 years and 354 days), did not pay off but it was far from the youngster's fault.

There were far too many more senior players having off days and for