ReactionHarvey Elliott: We took our chances - now let's build momentum

The Reds guaranteed their place in the competition’s last 16 for a sixth season in a row with a 3-0 win at Johan Cruijff Arena on Wednesday night.

Three goals either side of the interval landed the crucial blows, with Mohamed Salah finishing stylishly, Darwin Nunez heading in a second and then Elliott thumping home an unstoppable third.

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Post-match, the No.19 spoke to Liverpoolfc.com about his strike, the performance against Ajax and the objective to now build on it with Leeds United coming up at Anfield in the Premier League this weekend.

Read the interview in full below…

Harvey, Champions League goals are becoming a nice little habit, aren’t they?

Yeah, definitely – I think that’s two in two now. It’s always nice to get on the scoresheet and when the chances fall to me, I just need to make sure I take it and that’s what I did tonight. But most importantly it’s about the win and I’m just happy I’ve contributed with the goal.

I think calling it a chance is probably being quite modest because it seemed like you only had the shape of the ball to aim at from that angle…

In those situations you just need to absolutely smash it as hard as you can, and that’s what I did. Thankfully my right foot isn’t just for standing on and I could use it tonight! I just need to take the chances as they come, however they come. In Champions League football you are only going to get limited chances. Tonight it was a half-chance and this is what it’s all about, you just need to make sure you take these opportunities, and if and when they come just make sure you are concentrated and know what you are doing. Thankfully that’s what I was doing tonight. But most importantly it’s about the win, getting the three points and going back to England happy and taking it into the weekend now.

A lot to do with the quality of the pass as well from Mo, who also scored the opening goal. That goal just before half-time was massive because you were up against it before then…

Yeah, definitely. We always knew Ajax were going to come out and be front-footed and come at us because they needed to win tonight, and at their home stadium. We always knew it was going to happen. Mo, I don’t have enough words to describe him. An unbelievable player as well as an unbelievable guy as well. He is always there helping me out and I’m just very happy for him to get a goal and assist.

I think as a team we all played very well; the boys that came on, obviously the young lads as well did very well, including Stefan [Bajcetic]. It’s easy to get overexcited about the situation – he came here, stamped his foot on the ground and showed he is one of us in the senior team. It was an all-round great performance and we just need to take it into the weekend, make sure we take this momentum and confidence and put in another performance.

Did it feel like the luck you’ve not had maybe sometimes? That chance from Ajax hits the post, there have been times where you’ve not started too well and gone behind. But tonight you kept it at 0-0 and then you could really push on either side of half-time…

Definitely. We always knew they were going to come out so it was just making sure we kept our heads; if we did go a goal down, make sure we didn’t drop our heads and keep spirits high and keep pushing. That’s what we did. Mo scoring the goal was a massive help, an unbelievable ball from Hendo as well. That was the game plan really, just to make sure we took the chances when they came. We always knew we were going to get limited chances, it was just making sure we took them as they came and tonight we absolutely did that and came away with the three points, which is the most important thing. A great performance tonight and we just need to take it into the weekend now, not get too happy. We can celebrate tonight the excitement of qualifying now, but as soon as it comes to the weekend we just need to make sure we focus on the Premier League and take each game as it comes and keep the momentum, keep it building.

And you showed a real desire to keep that clean sheet as well…

Yeah, 100 per cent, that’s the main thing as well, making sure we don’t concede goals. Just because we were 3-0 up doesn’t mean we can become complacent, we need to stay fully at it throughout the whole 95 minutes and that’s exactly what we did tonight. It’s just all credit to the lads, the defensive players as well as Ali, they all played a massive part and we all played as a team, we all wanted to work hard for each other and we all wanted to put in a shift, even the lads coming off the bench. It was just making sure we stayed as a team and didn’t become complacent, which is easily done being 3-0 up, but we absolutely didn’t do that tonight.