Michael
Liverpool lost 4-1 away to Napoli on match day one of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions group stage and were humbled after a convincing victory for the Italians.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool were pitted against Italian giants Napoli in their opening game in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. Liverpool have had recent history with the club from Naples, after playing them in 2018-19, and 2019-20 (losing both games).
Liverpool’s boss made three changes from the 0-0 stalemate at Goodison Park, bringing in Andrew Robertson for Kostas Tsimikas, James Milner for Fabio Carvalho, and Roberto Firmino for Luis Diaz.
Napoli made two changes from their 2-1 away win at Lazio, bringing in Mathias Olivera for Mario Rui, and Matteo Politano for Hirving Lozano in attack.
Napoli scored the opener from the penalty spot after an early handball from James Milner made the referee point to the spot. Piotr Zielinski fired Napoli ahead after just five minutes into the game. It would be James Milner to be booked after a reckless challenge just minutes later in what was a poor performance for the veteran Englishman.
Napoli had a second penalty awarded after Virgil van Dijk was judged to have fouled Napoli forward Victor Osimhen. It would be Victor Osimhen himself to take the penalty – only for Alisson to save it and keep the score at 1-0.
It wouldn’t be long, until Napoli doubled their lead after Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa finished off a well-worked move to score the hosts’ second of the night. Two would become three after poor defending from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez presented Giovanni Simeone with a tap-in.
It only got worse after half-time when Piotr Zielinski followed up from an initial save from Alisson to make it 4-0 to Liverpool. The response from Napoli’s fourth goal was seen when Luis Diaz scored to make it 4-1 on the night when he found the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Thiago and Diogo Jota were substituted onto the pitch after they returned from lengthy injury spells. Arthur Melo also made his debut after he was signed on deadline day on loan from Juventus.
The only real positive from the game was the fact that there was a relatively decent response from Liverpool in the second half after the concession of the fourth goal. They died, but they died fighting. Luis Diaz, who was Liverpool’s best player on the night, scoring an excellent consolation goal
There is much to improve ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday – let’s hope tonight was the wake-up call the team needed. They’re good – in fact they’re world-class, but they need to start playing like it.
