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PORTO, Portugal -- Jordan Henderson feels teams all around Europe will be wary about facing Liverpool and believes that was the case even before Wednesday's 5-0 demolition of Porto. Liverpool are well on course to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time since 2009 after a dominant display in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie at the Estadio do Dragao. "I think before this game, I am not sure how many teams would have wanted to play us anyway because when we are on it, like we were tonight, we are very hard to play," Henderson said. "But that has to be our norm and we have to be consistent with the performances and to get results like this. Yes, it is a lot of goals. Hopefully, we can get more. At the same time, we need to make sure we get clean sheets like we did tonight." Liverpool's potent front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane all scored against their Portuguese opposition, taking this season's total to 99 goals in all competitions. Mane scored his first hat trick for Liverpool at Porto and Salah recorded his 30th goal of the campaign in all competitions. But Henderson singled out the Liverpool defence, led by Virgil van Dijk, for particular praise as it has now helped keep clean sheets in three of their last four fixtures. "Virgil has been brilliant since he has come in, but again, the whole back four was very good," the Liverpool captain added. "The team defended from the front. It was a good performance and that is all I can say. "We have to do that more often. I thought the lads, the whole team, were brilliant from start to finish. That should be normal for us. "You have to keep that going in the Premier League and in this competition. There is another leg at Anfield to finish the job off, so there is a lot we need to do to improve, but [Porto] was a good step."
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