LIVERPOOL — Liverpool ripped apart Manchester City with three goals inside the opening 31 minutes as it won its Champions League quarterfinal first leg tie 3-0 Wednesday. Anfield has witnessed many memorable European nights over the years and this will take its place among the most spectacular as a simply devastating, first-half display was crowned with goals from Mohamed Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane. The tie may not be over, with 90 minutes remaining at the Etihad Tuesday, but Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp, who has enjoyed more wins over City counterpart Pep Guardiola than any other manager, will be delighted as his commitment to attacking football was amply rewarded. Liverpool is the only team to have beaten City in the Premier League this season, with a thrilling 4-3 victory in January, and it repeated the formula of that success by attacking City’s defense from the outset. Roared on by a particularly vocal home crowd, Liverpool put the Premier League’s champion-elect under intense pressure from the first kick and it took just 12 minutes for City to crack. After a City corner, James Milner launched the ball forward, Salah broke from the halfway line and played the ball inside to Roberto Firmino. His shot was blocked by City keeper Ederson but Firmino pounced on the loose ball and slipped it to Salah, who fired home. City responded with a swift counter-attack of their own but Leroy Sane, who had broken from deep, screwed the ball wide when he could have played in teammate Kevin De Bruyne. Liverpool was rampant though and harrying City off the ball in midfield when Milner won back possession and moved it straight to Oxlade-Chamberlain. The former Arsenal midfielder unleashed an unstoppable drive from 25 meters to make it 2-0 in the 20th minute. City was now reeling and looked nothing like the team that has marched so convincingly to a 16-point lead in the Premier League and it was not long before Juergen Klopp’s side made it 3-0. Salah floated a teasing cross from the right toward Mane, who rose above the City defense to power a header past Ederson and send the Anfield crowd into delirium. City came out brightly after the break though, finally managing to find some composure with its passing. Liverpool was unable to get back into its first-half rhythm and it suffered a blow when Salah went off injured in the 52nd minute. Guardiola’s side was back in their familiar role of controlling possession, but were struggling to create chances with Sane wasting a promising opening at the back post. A miserable night for Sane, who was superbly handled by young Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold, was completed when he was ruled offside as he broke down the left and crossed for Gabriel Jesus to put the ball in the net. Yet the fact that City’s late pressure was accompanied by audible tension from the Liverpool fans was a reminder that the tie is not over. Few teams could overturn a 3-0 deficit against Liverpool but Guardiola’s side is certainly one of them. Roma self-destructs vs. Barca Barcelona capitalized on two disastrous own goals by AS Roma to thrash the Italian side 4-1 at the Nou Camp Wednesday and take a huge step toward reaching the Champions League semifinals for the first time in three years. Roma’s captain Daniele De Rossi hit an unstoppable shot into his own net to break the deadlock in the 38th minute of what had been a delicately poised first leg and a second own goal 10 minutes into the second half, this time by Greek defender Kostas Manolas, stretched the runaway La Liga leader’s advantage. Barca defender Gerard Pique piled misery on the Italians four minutes later, mopping up the rebound after Luis Suarez was thwarted by goalkeeper Alisson before Roma’s top scorer Edin Dzeko struck at the right end to give his side faint hope of a turnaround in the second leg. Suarez effectively vanquished those hopes, however, by notching his side’s fourth goal three minutes from time, scoring for the first time in the Champions League in over a year. “We weren’t lucky, we hit the post a couple of times and the own goals happened because we kept on putting them under pressure, making sure the ball was in their area far more than ours,” Pique told reporters. “We played very well and that’s why we’ve got such a good result. It would have been better to not concede but we cannot complain, we have got a very good advantage.” — Reuters