Liverpool cruised to a confidence-building victory in the Champions League as Rangers were comfortably dismissed at Anfield.

Jurgen Klopp's side have struggled for form this season but a disappointing the Scottish team represented the perfect opposition to return to winning ways as Liverpool moved closer to a place in the knockout phase.

Rangers fans travelled to Merseyside in their thousands and backed their side noisily throughout an embarrassingly one-sided encounter which Liverpool should have won far more emphatically.

Trent Alexander-Arnold put Liverpool ahead after only seven minutes when he clipped a perfect 25-yard free-kick into the top corner and only veteran keeper Allan McGregor kept the Rangers in range with a succession of saves, frustrating Darwin Nunez in particular.

Liverpool finally got the second goal they deserved eight minutes after the break when Mohamed Salah scored from the penalty spot after Leon King fouled Luis Diaz.

Klopp later said: "It was exactly what we needed tonight. A new formation, we had to change things. We had plenty of chances, imagine if we had taken more of them. Really good game. Very important.

"Two set piece goals as well - I love this as it means you don't need to wait for VAR.

"Unlucky in moments offensively, rock solid defensively apart from the very end. It will be a different game next week.

[On TAA's defending] "There is no problem with defending - in good moments everything is fine - if there is no protection it looks like he is exposed. We changed it a little bit today.

"We expected a reaction - everyone expected a reaction - we really want to turn this into a positive and for that we need consistency. For that, you need top-class defending and we had that tonight. It worked out pretty well."