Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has gone sarcastic after a blistering Champions League defeat at Naples. Napoli humbled the 2022 Champions League finalist in style, thrashing them 4-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Football fans were again shocked on Wednesday, 7th September as Liverpool opened their 2022/23 Champions League campaign with a dramatic and shocking defeat to Napoli. The six times winner of the competition and 2022 finalist were in disarray as Napoli continued the drubbing that would have hit five goals if Nigeria international Victor Osimhen did not miss an early penalty.
Luciano Spalletti’s men were on the better side, especially in the first half of the game. They stuck three times and missed a penalty to hand Jurgen Klopp his biggest defeat this season.
Just 3 minutes into the match, the Reds conceded a penalty; Milner had stretched out an arm and handled Politano’s shot inside the box. Carlos Del Cerro Grande had no choice but to give the penalty.
Zielinski took the spot-kick, rightly beating Allison to bury it into the bottom-left corner to give Napoli the lead.
The Reds conceded another penalty again in the 15th minute. This time, Victor Osimhen stepped up and took it. Allison saved it, leaving a rebound that was fired blank by Politano for a goal kick.
On the half-hour mark, Napoli got a second. Anguissa, after a neatly combined ball with Zielinskiz, scored inside the box to double the lead.
It was Giovanni Simeone with the third goal at the stroke of halftime. He successfully tapped home, inside the box, a cut-back from Kvaratskhelia, who had beat two Liverpool defenders at the left flank to set up the goal. Napoli completed triple clean goals over the Reds before heading to the break.
The pounding continued just two minutes into the second half. Zielinski completed his brace after slotting home a rebound from Allison after the first shot was saved.
Liverpool responded immediately in the 49th minute. Luis Diaz’s fantastic strike from the 18-yard box gave the Reds hope, but it turned out as a consolation as Jurgen Klopp’s men could not find the back of the net again. The match ended with Liverpool capitulating with a 4-1 defeat in Naples.
Jurgen Klopp Reacts To Debilitating Defeat
Jurgen Klopp candidly admitted that Liverpool got a lot wrong against Napoli; that the team has to improve and possibly ‘reinvent themselves.’
“It looks a little bit like we have to reinvent ourselves, so it’s really a lot of things lacking, not in all games but now”, he said. “The fun part is we have to do that [reinvent ourselves] in the middle of a Premier League season and Champions League campaign.”
Commenting on the penalty, he said the team were just unlucky, but the other goals were served on the plate by defensive blunders.
“The two penalties we concede are both – for sure one – a little bit unlucky, but maybe you give them, only one goes in. Then the next two goals we served on a plate, that’s not cool, and we should defend better in the first place”, he said.
Going a bit sarcastic, Klopp said that it would be laughable to Wolves when they see the result as they will want to cash into the advantage.
“In three days we play against Wolves”, he noted. They saw the game tonight and could not stop laughing, probably, and thought, ‘Oh my god, that’s the perfect moment’.”
Analytically, Klopp maintained that Liverpool left enough space allowing Napoli to exploit and play easily. The team was not compact and connected with unsuccessful dribbles and no clear-cut chance.
‘‘We deserve this result”, Klopp added. “The way we were wide open, they found so many spaces. It felt like they had an extra man. You have to be ready to fight. We weren’t close enough to our mate.”
Liverpool plays Wolves in their next Premier League fixture before hosting Ajax on Tuesday in their next Champions League game.
