This may have been a game without real jeopardy but it was one of importance for Liverpool. Having suffered their first home league loss in 30 games at the weekend and with questions being fired the way of Jurgen Klopp and his players, defeat to an unbeaten Napoli would have only added to the angst ahead of Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Tottenham Hotspur.
Although Liverpool failed to overtake Napoli in first place of this Champions League group, they did manage a deserved victory against a strong opponent. Klopp can take positives from this display in what was his 400th game in charge of Liverpool.
The goals came late, when a draw looked rather likely, and spun on the introduction of Darwin Nunez who arrived as a 72nd-minute substitute. Firstly, five minutes from time, he rose to meet Kostas Tsimikas’s corner-kick and sent Alex Meret, the Napoli goalkeeper, down to the ground in an attempt to save his powerful downward header. The ‘keeper fumbled allowing Mo Salah to dispatch the rebound from close range and equal Steven Gerrard’s record of 41 European goals for Liverpool.
Then, deep into seven minutes of stoppage time, Virgil van Dijk brought a save from Meret who again let the ball spill and Nunez tapped it home. VAR would check but the substitute had been played onside by Piotr Zielinski’s boot. It was the type of telling impact that Jurgen Klopp would have wanted from his substitute.
Sending Napoli to their first defeat of the campaign is a feather in Liverpool’s cap, despite the rather subdued nature to this final group game. Luciano Spalletti’s side had scored in 14 successive games and wracked up a remarkable 50 goals in their opening 17 matches (20 of which came in five games in this competition).
Yet, despite Napoli starting with Victor Osimhen and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, their influential attackers, the visitors lacked the attacking verve that has become customary of their performances this season. Liverpool will happily claim their sixth clean sheet of the campaign against Napoli, who triumphed 4-1 in the reverse fixture in Naples.
Story of the game
After that humiliating defeat, Klopp said Liverpool had to “reinvent themselves” and he has attempted many things in an attempt to revitalise his flailing team since then. On this occasion it involved Curtis Jones partnering Salah at the forefront of Liverpool’s attack.
Jones was certainly at the centre of the home team’s early action: clipping a shot onto the roof of the net from a tight angle and then sending a header over the crossbar after Roberto Firmino kept a deflected cross in play with an acrobatic back-heel.
Jones also fed Salah who brought a fingertip save from Meret, but was offside. Liverpool needed to win by four clear goals if they were to usurp Napoli at the top of Group A and although Klopp’s team possessed enough attacking intent, it was a tall order that they never looked like achieving.
Thiago saw a side-footed effort from the edge of the area pushed aside by the Napoli ‘keeper after Liverpool had countered following an Alisson parry from Tanguy Ndombele’s low shot. Soon after the visiting side had a penalty claim waved away when Ibrahima Konate, making his first appearance since October 12, clashed with Kvaratskhelia.
Spalletti’s team thought they had broken the deadlock when Kvaratskhelia delivered a free-kick from the inside left channel and Leo Ostigard was free as a bird to dive and send a header past Alisson. However, VAR intervened with a goal check that lasted over three minutes before judging the Napoli centre-back to have been offside.
Kvaratskhelia’s volley from 10 yards out would have caused more problems for Alisson had the pace not been taken off it by Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was making his 50th appearance in the Champions League, becoming the youngest Liverpool player to achieve the milestone.
Klopp, who had already lost James Milner at the start of the second half due to a head injury, then turned to Nunez and Liverpool’s victory materialised from there.
Player of the match: Mo Salah
Salah equalled Steven Gerrard's record of 41 European goals for Liverpool.