Perfect night for 200-up Lamela

A goal, two assists and playing a huge part in a record win in the Champions League – it really was a perfect night for Erik Lamela to celebrate his 200th appearance for the Club.

The all-action Argentine delivered pinpoint crosses for Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son to hand us a quickfire start against Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) in Matchday Three of Group B.

Sonny made it 3-0 before the break and having seen a couple of chances go begging, Erik was there to rifle home for 4-0 just before the hour mark. Harry completed the scoring and 5-0 marked our biggest win in the Champions League era of the European Cup (we beat Gornik Zabrze 8-1 in 1961).

Erik, 27, joined us from Roma back in 2013 and has recovered from two serious injuries (back, hip) to reach his double century – the seventh player in the squad to do so.

He told us: “I am really happy to have 200 appearances for this amazing Club and I’m more than happy because we won, and we needed the win so much.

“I’m feeling good. I’m so glad to be here with this team, it’s fantastic. We did very good last season. This season we are in a period where maybe it’s a little hard at the moment, but I believe in this team, and the players are the same.

“The new players are very good and all together, we are pushing in the same way. I’m more than confident we will do well again this season.

“It’s a positive night. We needed the win, now we are much better in the group and our confidence is better after winning the game 5-0. We need to take this game, keep going, try to get better and better and now focus on Liverpool.”