The Liverpool of the past has nothing to do with the current one, inconsistent and in the hands of striking defensive errors and vulnerable as in the Diego Armando Maradona stadium, where it was clearly surpassed by a Napoli inspired on the first day of the Champions League.
The runner-up of the tournament came out badly from Italy. Jurgen Klopp’s team showed that the instability with which he has started in the Premier is not a one-time thing, of a few games. In the continental competition, in which he has excelled in recent years, he was put in evidence against an opponent for whom order, speed and accuracy were enough. It is not a small thing.
The damage could have been greater before the break that Liverpool already reached with three goals behind. The goals from Pietr Zielinski, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone could have been joined by a penalty taken by Victor Osimhen that was saved by Alisson.
It was a want and not power of Liverpool that has lost the consistency of yesteryear. Joe Gomez and Virgil Van Dijk were clearly marked. Even the usual reliability of Trent Alexander Arnold and Andrew Robertson was called into question. Also that of Fabinho, always surpassed by the Italian acceleration.
Liverpool had no resources to cover the spaces left by their rival who opened the scoring after four minutes when a Zielinski shot hit James Milner’s hand. The VAR warned the Spanish referee Carlos Del Cerro Grande. The Pole did not fail and opened the Italian account.
At quarter of an hour, Virgil Van Dijk stepped on Victor Osimhen inside the area. He did not ignore the play for the video that warned the judge of the game. It was the Nigerian who executed the penalty that Alisson saved. Liverpool breathed that undertook a fictitious domain although it was unraveling every time it went against its rival.
Van Dijk took a shot from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia under the crossbar half an hour after Osimhen had stolen the ball from Joe Gomez. He could have been the second to come next. The center back failed again and a wall between Zielinski and Andre Zambo Anguissa ended with a good shot from the Cameroonian into the net.
And the third was on the verge of the break with an individual play by Kvaratskhelia that ended with a pass to Giovanni Simeone, who minutes before had replaced the injured Osimhen, who scored on an empty goal.
Klopp shook the bench. As expected he took out Joe Gomez and brought in Joel Matip but nothing went as he expected afterwards. In the first one that Napoli had, they enlarged the scoreboard. The fourth came with a shot by Zielinski, a save by Alisson and the rebound collected by the Pole who gently raised the ball into the net.
In a fit of rage, Liverpool closed the gap. It was Luis Díaz who extended meters with the ball and shot low from the edge of the box, positioned, to beat Alex Meret for the first time.
It was the Colombian who did the most to ease his team’s blush. He remained on the field in the carousel of changes established by Klopp at game time and that affected Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, missing, who left their place on the field to Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota. In the same minute, 62, Thiago Alcántara reappeared. He replaced James Milner.
Liverpool surrounded the Napoli area. On impulse and because Luciano Spalletti’s eleven allowed him. He delayed lines and put them together. And he lavished less on the attack. The reds did not find a new goal that would put them in the game to try to avoid a new setback and a different scenario in Champios than he had projected.
4 – Naples: Alex Meret; Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Amir Rrahmani, Min-jae Kin, Mathias Olivera (Mario Rui, m.75) Stanislav Lobotka, Andre Zambo Anguissa; Matteo Politano (Hirving Lozano, m.58), Piotr Zielinski (Eljif Elmas, m.74), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Alessio Zerbin, m.57); y Victor Osimhen (Giovanni Simeone, m.41).
1 – Liverpool: Alisson; Trent Alexander Arnold, Joe Gomez (Joel Matip, m.46), Virgil Van Dijk, Andy Robertson; Harvey Elliott (Arthur, m.77), Fabinho, James Milner (Thiago, m.63); Mohamed Salah (Diogo Jota, m.63), Luis Díaz y Roberto Firmino (Darwin Núñez, m.62).
Goals: 1-0, m.5: Piotr Zielinski, penalty. 2-0, m.31 Zambo Anguissa Andre-Frank; 3-0, m.44: Giovanni Simeone; 4-0, m.47: Zielinski; 4-1, m.49: Luis Díaz.
Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande (ESP). He showed yellow cards to James Milner and Virgil Van Dijk of Liverpool and Amir Rrahmani of Napoli.
Incidents: match of the first day of Group A of the Champions League played at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples.
