Liverpool had a genuinely disappointing performance against Napoli in their Champions League Group A opening at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples, conceding four goals in a woeful performance.
On Wednesday, astonishing Napoli defeated the competition’s finalists from the previous season at home and won 4-1. Piotr Zielinski, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, and Giovanni Simeone scored goals against Liverpool in the first half, leaving them 3-0 behind at the break.
Liverpool’s record was poor going into the clash in Naples. They haven’t won at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in their last three visits, let alone scored a goal.
In the inaugural Champions League match, Jürgen Klopp picked Andy Robertson, James Milner, and Roberto Firmino over more inexperienced players Kostas Tsimikas, Fabio Carvalho, and Darwin Nunez. They had all played in the Merseyside Derby the last Saturday.
In the opening five minutes of play, Milner committed a handball and handed a penalty to Luciano Spalletti’s side, which Piotr Zielinksi converted. This gave Luciano Spalletti’s team the lead.
Jürgen Klopp’s team was having a lot of trouble with Napoli’s furious pace and tight pressing when Zielinski’s incisive ball split up the defence of the away team, including Joe Gomez and Van Dijk, and on the half-hour mark, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa slipped a shot past Alisson at the goal line.
Giovanni Simeone scored his first goal for Napoli just before halftime after a quick-footed Kvaratskhelia hustled to win a ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold and squared it for the Argentine. Simeone kissed his Champions League tattoo, which was created when he was just 14 years old.
Zielinski increased his goal tally again in the match minutes after the half in the city of Napoli, he tapped in after Alisson had first saved a ball and Alexander-Arnold appeared indifferent, making the defence last night rather shoddy.
Luis Diaz made it 4-1 two minutes later with a curling attempt from the outside of the area into the lower corner, the Colombian appeared to be the only player who was slightly motivated.
The German tactician spoke to BT Sport about why his team was humiliated after reaching the competition’s final last season.
He stated, “Firstly, Napoli played really well and we didn’t, that is not cool and we should have defended better in the first place and, of course, in the last moment as well. We were not compact defensively or offensively. Until Thiago entered the pitch I cannot remember one counter-pressing situation. The reason for that is that we are just too wide.”
