Liverpool cruised into the Europa League knock-out stages with a match to spare as a 4-0 victory over LASK confirmed their place as group winners. Early goals from Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo were enhanced by a second-half Mohamed Salah penalty – his 199th goal for the club – and an added-time strike by Gakpo as Toulouse’s draw with Union Saint-Gilloise means a dreaded round-of-32 play-off was avoided. That mere fact alone will have delighted manager Jurgen Klopp, whose pre-match press conference had been littered with references to the intense December period ahead, but a club-record 12 points in the group stage shows how dominant the tournament favourites have been. The Reds’ 100 percent home record was extended to 10 games and a third successive Anfield clean sheet for the first time since October 2022 means they have only conceded four times in front of their own fans while scoring 30. In reality, that record was never in danger as the Austrians are the weakest side in the group and that frailty was exposed twice inside three minutes early on by a home side registering nine changes, with only Salah and left-back Kostas Tsimikas retained from the weekend draw at Manchester City. A move which started on the left ended up on the right from where Joe Gomez crossed for Diaz to stoop and power home a twisting header. The second goal came from the same flank as Salah, teed up by Diaz, picked out Gakpo at the far post for the simplest of close-range volleyed finishes. Tsimikas smashed a fierce drive against the crossbar and the overwhelming confidence of the hosts was exemplified by Gomez, who has never scored in eight years at the club, drilling a 25-yard shot just wide. Much of the half appeared to revolve in getting Salah to his double century as the team tried to pick him out at every opportunity, whether he be menacingly poised on the shoulder of the last defender or inside the penalty area. Two chances went begging when his angled shot turned into more of a cross but still evaded Gakpo before he fired tamely at the goalkeeper. Six minutes into the second half Salah finally found the net but he owed it all to Gakpo. The Netherlands international’s short through-ball to Diaz missed his intended target but the Dutchman was alert enough to chase his own pass and somehow get there before goalkeeper Tobias Lawal, who brought him down. Lawal showed a similar lack of reaction in watching Salah tuck the penalty into the corner of the net without even attempting a dive. That was enough to put the result beyond doubt but the feeling was there were more goals to be had as Gakpo hit the base of a post from outside the area, although the Dutchman eventually got a deserved second in added time. The arrival of Darwin Nunez, and to a lesser extent Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones, livened up proceedings, with the former putting in one of his now typical all-action hit-and-miss performances. It erred more towards the latter as, after Harvey Elliott’s deflected shot was repelled by the goalkeeper’s legs as he dived the other way, the Uruguay international had one effort diverted wide and then shot straight at Lawal from eight yards. Marin Ljubcic blazed over the visitors’ best chance with only Caoimhin Kelleher to beat and the Liverpool goalkeeper, set for his longest run in the side due to Alisson Becker being sidelined for a fortnight with a hamstring injury, did not have anything to do until the last 20 minutes. When he was called upon he was not flustered, coming out to smother Ibrahim Mustapha, repelling Moses Usor’s shot and producing a reaction stop from LASK’s top scorer Robert Zulj, but even Sunday’s shot-shy visitors Fulham – scorers of only 13 goals in as many games – will provide a sterner test. Read More Alex Moreno stars as Aston Villa progress in Europa Conference League You’ve got to dream big: Lewis Dunk eyes Europa League glory with Brighton David Moyes urges West Ham to finish the job and top Group A Tomas Soucek snatches late winner for West Ham in Serbia Joao Pedro penalty sends Brighton through to Europa League knockout stages Five bad weeks do not define a team – England’s Ben Duckett

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A Nebraska teenager who shot dead his parents in the 1950s before escaping from prison lived out his life in Australia as a successful businessman and beloved “family man”, DNA tests revealed. William Leslie Arnold shot and killed his parents at the age of 16 in a dispute over using the family car and buried them in the backyard of their Omaha home. The teenager kept on going to school for two weeks and acting as if nothing had happened before being arrested. He pleaded guilty to the slayings and in 1959 was given a life sentence in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. He pleaded guilty to the slayings and in 1959 was given a life sentence in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Despite being viewed as a model prisoner, on 14 July 1967, Arnold and another inmate were involved in a jailbreak and went on the run. Investigators say that Arnold moved to Chicago where he moved in with a woman and worked in the city before moving to California and then to Australia. The FBI continued to investigate the case until the 1990s when they handed it back to the Nebraska Department of Corrections, who in turn gave it to the US Marshals Service. Investigators eventually discovered that within three months of his escape, he had married and established an alias, John Damon. He continued to use that identity when he moved with his second wife to New Zealand in 1992 and then to Australia in 1997, where he built a career as a salesman. Arnold died in 2010 at the age of 67 from complications caused by blood clots leaving behind a wife and two children, as well as three stepdaughters from his first marriage. Authorities say that all of the people in his life were completely oblivious to his criminal past. “It’s a total shock,” Arnold’s stepdaughter Kelly told The Omaha World-Herald, calling the revelation “Mind-blowing.” “A lot of things that didn’t make sense or were uncomfortable now make sense,” said another stepdaughter, Shawn. “We all need to work our way through it, and that’s what we’re doing.”

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I love a good journal. As a writer, there's nothing that brings more joy than purchasing a new blank journal (in fact, I have stacks of them, hoarded like I'm a dragon, and they're my precious treasure). But when it comes to cracking one open and putting pen to paper, it can be difficult to figure out which journal isn't just pretty but also functional.