Klopp speaks!
Read Andy Hunter’s player ratings from Anfield
With that, I’m done. A thoroughly gripping game, won by the team that deserved to win it − but only just. Bye!
Barney Ronay has found something new to say about Mo Salah:
Just past the half hour at a chilly, angsty Anfield Mo Salah was suddenly free in space on the edge of the Napoli box, scampering in on goal in that bouncy style, hair flapping, legs whirring like a cartoon kangaroo. Salah had time to look up and nudge a weak, doomed pass across the six yard box in the vague direction of Sadio Mané. There was a groan around the seats, but a quiet one.
The one thing people here know for sure about Salah is that he just keeps going. Some footballers are relentless in a pained kind of way, tied to the rack, teeth clenched, head down. Salah has a lightness to him. He keeps coming because he knows in the end the space will open, that his ability to glide and spring sideways with preternatural snap will find the right sliver of space.
Much more here:
And here is Jürgen Klopp!
I’m not sure if a manager was ever more proud of a team than I am at the moment. I said before the game, the only good thing about the first game at Napoli is that they have no clue who we are. Usually in the Champions League you cannot surprise a team. Together with the crowd, it was just outstanding. The boys played an outstanding game.
If you go through [your footage], find a team who caused Napoli the problems we caused them tonight. They had to completely change their game. They had no key for us. We were strong, we took the ball, we made yards, we changed their formation with our runs, Mo scored an unbelievable goal and Ali made a save, I have no idea how he made save like this, just amazing.
We could have scored more, that’s obvious. But 1-0, stay focused, stay compact and defend them. It was wild after 65 minutes already, counter, counter, everybody lost the ball in the wrong moment. First half we were cool. What a game! Unbelievable.
It was a bit too intense. We deserved to win and it’s just brilliant. My respect for Napoli couldn’t be bigger, how strong they are. But they found tonight an opponent that was ready for them.
Still waiting to hear from the managers, but surely it won’t be long now.
Here is Daniel Taylor’s report from Anfield:
Perhaps it would be stretching the truth a little to say this victory for Liverpool will be remembered as one of the great European nights here. That, however, is only because the list is already so extensive and the jubilation at the final whistle told its own story. Liverpool had made it through and can be greatly encouraged by the way they handled a potentially treacherous night.
More here:
A pretty decent record.
16 - @LFC are still unbeaten in 16 home games in Europe with Jürgen Klopp (13 wins, 3 draws) and in their last 19 European home games in total. Anfield. #LIVNAP pic.twitter.com/fbJKYUIVO2
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) December 11, 2018
Napoli were poor, and should have been more effectively punished, but Liverpool were not quite at their best, move after move unravelled at the final pass, and when they did make clear opportunities Mané insisted on spurning them. That Milik moment in stoppage-time, though, that was triumph and disaster in one glorious, brutal, gutting, exhilarating instant.
James Milner says this:
It was always going to be a tough game. They’re a good team. The crowd were amazing tonight. I thought it was a really good performance. We had to bring on the front foot. In the first game I don’t think they experienced that at all. I thought we defended really well from front to back. We had more chances to win the game, but unbelievable save from Ali as well.
And Andy Robertson says this:
We knew we had to get off to a fast start which we did, but when we were 1-0 up they’ve got nothing to lose. We had to stay strong. Alisson, it was an unbelievable save in the last minute. We knew what we had to do and we did it.
So PSG win the group, and Liverpool progress in second place. Elsewhere, Tottenham secure a 1-1 draw in Barcelona and also go through.
Final score: Liverpool 1-0 Napoli
90+5 mins: And that’s it! Liverpool have squeezed their way out of Group C by the skin of their profligate teeth!
90+4 mins: This can’t have happened! Salah passes through to Mané, who escapes the last defender and runs clear on goal. He has time, he has space, he has sidefooted the ball wide of the far post!
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90+3 mins: “Liverpool’s finishing has been rank. Their final ball has, Salah included, been mostly rank,” writes David Hindle. “In fact, they’ve stunk horribly in attack for most of the evening. They’re extremely fortunate Salah had one inspired moment in him.” Van Dijk and Matip have both been excellent, though.
90+2 mins: A cross from the right bounces through to Milik at the far post. He controls and shoots from six yards, but Alisson somehow gets in the way!
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90+2 mins: An incredible save from Alisson! Remarkable!
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90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time, give or take.
90 mins: Koulibaly has joined the strikers as Napoli throw men forward.
90 mins: Lovren is now on, with 30 seconds plus stoppage time to play.
89 mins: Liverpool are temporarily down to 10 men, with Henderson filling in at full-back. Lovren is preparing to come on. Before he does so, Insigne sends a volley high from the edge of the area.
88 mins: A delay while Alexander-Arnold is treated for what looks like cramp.
87 mins: Impossible miss! The ball is clipped through to Salah, who pulls it back to Mané, who needed only to sidefoot into the net from seven yards, with Ospina helpfully diving out of the way again, but it goes wide!
85 mins: Salah pokes back to Wijnaldum, who with little time to consider his options drags a shot wide from the edge of the area.
84 mins: A second Liverpool change sees Fabinho introduced, and a knackered-looking Milner taken off.
83 mins: Salah puts a hand on Ospina as the goalkeeper prepares to bowl the ball out. Ospina goes down unnecessarily, and Salah is booked.
82 mins: Robertson brilliantly beats Maksimovic on the left wing, but then runs straight into the next Napoli defender in his way.
82 mins: Alexander-Arnold crosses, and Wijnaldum wins the header but sends it wide.
81 mins: A second Liverpool goal here would be important only as a time-wasting measure, as they would remain one Napoli goal from elimination. Still, they’re pushing for it, and have a corner.
79 mins: Liverpool bring on Keita, taking off Firmino.
79 miss: What a miss! Insigne curls the ball across the area from left to right and Callejon meets it on the corner of the six-yard box but shoots high!
78 mins: Liverpool win a free-kick on the right. Milner plays it to Salah, who plays it to Firmino, who clips it over the defence to Van Dijk, who volleys over!
77 mins: Another Ospina save! Robertson is played in by Salah on the left of the area, and his hard, low cross is turned goalwards by Mané, but it hits Ospina’s legs!
76 mins: Firmino keeps not quite nailing final, crucial passes. Now he passes just behind Mane, who can’t bring it under control.
74 mins: Chance for a second! Firmino plays in Salah, who tries to take it round Ospina. The keeper however gets a fingertip on the ball, taking it away from goal, and then scurries back to flap Salah’s attempted chip to safety.
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73 mins: Napoli are enjoying their best spell of the half and probably the match, and having totally refreshed their left flank that is where they are focusing their attacks.
72 mins: This has been a frustratingly messy half, and with Liverpool having failed to extend their lead, and needing two goals to feel any kind of comfort anyway, tension is mounting.
71 mins: The corner is easily cleared, and the ensuing long throw is also easily cleared. “Every misplaced pass in the penalty area, every pernickity decision by the referee, is just making me more and more nervous,” says Matt Dony. “Rationally, especially in the second half, Liverpool have been comfortably in top, and look much more likely to score. And yet. And yet. So I’m distracting myself by admiring Napoli’s crest, in all it’s late 90’s Netscape Navigator glory. When the internet was a much friendlier place.”
71 mins: Napoli’s best move of the half ends with Callejon’s cross from the right being cut out by Van Dijk at the near post.
70 mins: Napoli make their final change, bringing Faouzi Ghoulam on and taking Mário Rui off.
69 mins: Alexander-Arnold’s shot deflects twice on its way to Ospina, but is nevertheless easily saved.
67 mins: Matip plays a lovely pass into midfield, but Milner is offside. Napoli bring Arkadiusz Milik off, and give the Liverpool fans one final opportunity to boo Mertens.
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65 mins: Firmino plays a lovely backheel pass to Wijnaldum in midfield. It doesn’t lead to much, but it’s very pretty.
64 mins: Somehow, though, Napoli remain only one goal down, and surely they can’t play this poorly for the next half-hour?
62 mins: Now Milner rampages into the area, and curls a shot wide of the far post.
62 mins: Napoli make a first substitution, bringing Zielinski on for Fabián Ruiz.
61 mins: Napoli have been poor this half, and were it not for the apparently omnipresent Koulibaly would surely have been punished for it. Henderson hits a 25-yarder, which Ospina saves.
59 mins: Firmino gets Mané’s pass stuck under his feet. Meanwhile in Belgrade, Red Star have pulled a goal back and now trail 2-1.
58 mins: Van Dijk’s 40-yarder floats a couple of yards wide.
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57 mins: At the other end Alexander-Arnold crosses, and Firmino heads straight at Ospina from 15 yards.
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57 mins: Albiol wins the header, but from 10 yards out and it bounces straight to Alisson.
56 mins: Koulibaly blocks a Salah shot, and then carries the ball out of defence and into Liverpool’s half, the move ending with Robertson blocking Callejon’s cross, and a corner.
55 mins: Salah passes to Wijnaldum, who has Mane running free behind him. He can’t see behind him, though, so tries to pass back to Salah and Koulibaly wins the ball.
53 mins: Liverpool are pushing for a second here, but not quite convincingly. Wijnaldum plays in Mane, who’s offside.
51 mins: Salah could have scored a second! A poor pass from Mário Rui and a poor challenge from Hamsik combine to give Henderson the ball, he passes to Salah and the forwards shot fizzes wide of the near post.
50 mins: Liverpool appear to have discovered that if they hit the ball long to Napoli’s defence, it will be headed straight to a red shirt at least 50% of the time.
48 mins: Salah exchanges passes with a couple of team-mates, runs across the area and then clips a cross towards Wijnaldum, who attempts a hilariously difficult outside-of-the-boot curling volley, which hits a different part of the boot entirely.
47 mins: “As Yozzer might have said to Souey, ‘give us the perms’,” writes Ian Copestake. “If they score one will that fan stop crying?” Assuming PSG win it’s all very simple: if Liverpool keep a clean sheet, they go through. If Napoli score, Liverpool have to win by two goals or more.
46 mins: Peeeeep! Napoli get the second half rolling, with both teams unchanged.
The players are back out and ready for more.
Ospina’s attempt to save that Salah shot was particularly memorable, largely involving diving obligingly out of its way.
A pretty good first half, that, illuminated with a goal that featured a beautiful contribution from Salah and a string of disappointing ones from Napoli. The game, and the search for the team to accompany PSG out of the group, remains on a knife-edge.
Half time: Liverpool 1-0 Napoli
45+4 mins: The first half ends, and Liverpool have the goal-and-clean-sheet combination they need.
45+2 mins: Robertson needlessly gives the ball away to Mertens, and for a moment it looks like he’s going to run clear on goal. But somehow Van Dijk magically slides across the turf with bewildering speed and dispossesses him with such nonchalance he might have been hanging out the washing.
45+2 mins: Mertens spins onto a bouncing ball 10 yards into the Liverpool half and shoots, the ball bouncing harmlessly wide.
45+1 mins: There will be around three minutes of first-half stoppage time.
45 mins: Matip brings the ball out of defence, takes it midway into Napoli’s half and then attempts to slide a pass through to Milner, only for Mané to intercept it and ruin everything.
43 mins: As it stands, then, PSG win the group, and Liverpool are in second place.
42 mins: Oh, and Liverpool completely wasted that free-kick, passing it backwards to Alexander-Arnold, whose low shot into a thicket of Napoli legs was cleared.
41 mins: Paris Saint-Germain are now 2-0 up at Red Star, Neymar having apparently scored a beauty.
40 mins: Koulibaly fouls Salah on the right wing. This time the referee doesn’t seem minded to give anything, but eventually he blows his whistle, and a while later he brandishes a yellow card. I think the booking’s a bit harsh, but it was certainly a foul.
39 mins: “Thanks Padraig,” says Gerard Nugent, Koulibaly having been efficiently jinxed.
38 mins: TV cameras focus on a full grown, mature male Napoli fan, actually sobbing in the stands.
37 mins: Alisson’s poor clearance goes low and straight to Cellejon. Napoli have plenty of men forward but Mário Rui’s ball from the left is neither shot nor cross, and Liverpool survive.
36 mins: That was Salah at his magic best, conjuring something from nothing.
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GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Napoli (Salah, 34 mins)
Liverpool take the lead! And it’s another Milner assist! Salah takes the ball on the edge of the area, spins past Mário Rui, shimmies past Koulibaly and passes through Ospina’s legs from an acute angle!
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33 mins: This time Salah gets away, but his cross hits Albiol.
32 mins: “Don’t want to jinx him but Koulibaly has been great,” says Padraig McAuliffe. “Looks like he’s got everything.” He’s one of the most-hyped defenders in Europe for a reason, certainly. He jostles Salah for the ball, and just keeps getting a boot in the way.
29 mins: Firmino tries to win the ball from Allan, and the referee thinks that’s a foul too. His decision-making has been pretty poor so far, even if the Van Dijk booking that set his rubbish ball rolling was one of those challenges that might have been anything at all, from play on to red card.
27 mins: The ball is hoisted into the area and Ospina comes out to claim, fluffs it, bumps into a combination of Mané and Maksimovic and falls over. The referee awards a ludicrous free-kick, and Ospina rolls around a bit to try to convince people he wasn’t making it all up.
26 mins: Salah feeds Firmino, but his sidefooted shot hits Albiol.
25 mins: Callejon has the ball on the right, and Insigne escapes from his marker and runs unmarked to the near post. The cross goes to the far, and Van Dijk clears.
22 mins: Liverpool have the ball in the net, but Mané, who turns it in, is miles offside.
21 mins: After a couple of decisions went against them, the referee gives Liverpool a free kick and the home crowd roars in sarcastic approval.
20 mins: The game has calmed down a bit after a madcap opening, though there is still a sense that it is teetering on a precipice.
18 mins: Liverpool win a free kick near the right corner flag, and Ruiz comes over to stop them taking it for a while. This might be a test of Liverpool’s self-control as much as anything else.
16 mins: Mertens has miraculously recovered, but can expect to be roundly booed for the remainder of the evening.
15 mins: Mertens is still receiving treatment. He’s now on his feet and walking gingerly to the touchline. I have no doubt that he will immediately spin and sprint back onto the field.
13 mins: Van Dijk slides in to dispossess Mertens with a lovely challenge on halfway, but he catches the Belgian’s shin on the way through and the forward proceeds to roll around several times in mock agony. The Dutchman is booked, and will thus be suspended for Liverpool’s next European game.
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12 mins: Salah and Koulibaly get in a foot race, and the strength of the defender sees him through.
11 mins: Cavani has given PSG the lead in Belgrade.
10 mins: Liverpool lift a high pass towards the edge of the Napoli box, and Ospina races out to diving-header clear. That was really quite balletic.
9 mins: And another chance! Alexander-Arnold crosses and Milner rises above the significantly taller Maksimovic but heads over!
8 mins: And a chance at the other end! Mertens runs down the right and pulls the ball back to the edge of the area, where he hits a first-time effort that curls over the bar!
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7 mins: Incredible miss! Robertson lifts the ball into the area and Salah is on his own, with Firmino on his own behind him! He only needed to sidefoot it into the net, but he tries to control it, fails and it rolls to Ospina.
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3 mins: Real danger for Liverpool, but despite several opportunities to do so no Napoli player ever gets round to shooting, and eventually Hamsik’s pass to Callejon is intercepted.
3 mins: Lovren and Shaqiri look quite the pair sitting side by side on the bench, with their matching goatees making them look like runners-up in a George Clooney lookalike competition.
1 min: Peeeeeeeeep! They’re off!
Preliminaries complete, kick off is but a few moments away.
The delay, we’re told, was to ensure that the players here and in Belgrade emerge from their tunnels with complete synchronicity.
The players are in the tunnel! They’ve been there for quite a long time already. I’m not sure what’s up. “No patience for nervous fellow Liverpool fans,” writes Hubert O’Hearn. “Europe’s our home garden. 4-1 easily, or my name isn’t Ernest P. Walkover. Oh wait ...”
You’ll Never Walk Alone is on, and the countdown has begun.
What he said.
Watching Klopp be interviewed. I can recall when Maurinho had a touch of this about him. Mischievous, clever, confident, reckless and undoubtedly in love with the game. Never grow up Herr Klopp, it's a draining, devastating thing.#LIVNAP
— Danny Baker (@prodnose) December 11, 2018
“I wonder how Lovren is feeling, going from starting in both a Champion’s League final and a World Cup final to being third choice after Gomez and Matip,” muses Rick McGahey. I’m pretty sure he’ll be thinking that people should recognise that he’s one of the best defenders in the world.
Now this is how to lay out a dressing-room. Nobody’s putting the wrong jockstrap on by accident here.
“The conundrum Klopp has set his side is how to move the ball forward to the good players through a midfield that only passes sideways,” says Ian Copestake. “The answer? Substitute Hendo on 70 minutes when it is still 0-0.”
“We arrive here with a little advantage,” says Carlo Ancelotti in a pre-recorded interview with BT Sport. “It will be difficult but I think we have a lot of confidence.”
He doesn’t seem to have a lot of confidence in his belief that they have a lot of confidence. He should have said “I know without any doubt whatsoever we have a lot of confidence”. Merely thinking it makes him sound quite doubtful, which is ironic given the context.
Still 40 minutes before kick-off and the away end is already packed and in full voice:
Napoli fans making themselves heard at Anfield #LFC #LIVNAP pic.twitter.com/JT7XPj8vTE
— Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) December 11, 2018
If anyone is playing Crucial Anfield European Night Drinking Bingo and thus downing a shot every time the word Olympiacos is mentioned on TV, they probably already require medical attention.
“Oh my god, there’s two jerseys in the corner of that photo facing the same way,” sobs David Flynn. “Is the kit man a sociopath? Either follow a pattern or don’t mate.”
So Lovren is fit, but Matip keeps his place. Klopp praised him pretty highly after the win over Bournemouth, but I think he was widely expected to lose his spot anyway.
The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and these are tonight’s key protagonists:
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Milner, Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Mignolet, Fabinho, Lovren, Keita, Sturridge, Shaqiri, Origi.
Napoli: Ospina, Maksimovic, Albiol, Koulibaly, Rui, Allan, Hamsik, Fabian, Callejon, Mertens, Insigne. Subs: Karnezis, Ounas, Zielinski, Hysaj, Ghoulam, Diawara, Milik.
Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia).
#LIVNAP team news time! 🔴🔵
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 11, 2018
Reds line-up against @en_sscnapoli...#UCL https://t.co/jwdAYGFm5A
⚽ #LiverpoolNapoli
— Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) December 11, 2018
📌 XI
🏆 @ChampionsLeague #UCL
💙 #ForzaNapoliSempre pic.twitter.com/rRFv0I71jh
I fear Napoli’s one-shirt-this-way, one-shirt-the-other-way shirt-hanging regime may cause confusion among the number-in half of the squad. I’m not sure they’ve thought through the practicalities.
Hello world!
And so the stage is set, for another of those Anfield nights. Liverpool sit third in Group C, and must win to have any chance of going through to the knock-out stages. A score of 1-0 or victory by two goals or more will make sure, while any other single-goal victory scoreline would only be enough if Paris St-Germain fail to beat Red Star Belgrade in Serbia, which is a feat that neither Liverpool nor Napoli achieved.
Liverpool’s away record in this season’s competition has been pretty miserable, but at home they are a different prospect, last losing in this competition in 2014, 18 unbeaten matches ago (they won 13 of those). Napoli have not won an away match in the Champions League in six attempts (four lost) over two years. Liverpool surely won’t play as poorly as they did in losing to a last-minute goal in Naples, were excellent against an admittedly very poor Bournemouth at the weekend, and will be boosted by the return of a now fully-fit Sadio Mané.
“We are in a good moment for weeks and months as a club and a team, we have to use it,” says Jürgen Klopp. “We all know the results we need and it is quite difficult. Napoli are good in possession, counterattack as well, typical Italian team good at defending. It’s a big challenge but if something special is possible it is here and that is why we should try.”
It is a worthwhile ambition. Everyone likes special things, and I for one am looking forward to watching one this evening. Welcome all, and have some pre-match reading:
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