A magical evening under Vesuvius, Napoli destroyed Liverpool! Klopp didn’t put a napkin in front of his mouth – Športky.sk

Naples footballers celebrate a goal against Liverpool Source: TASR/AP/Andrew Medichini NAPLES – Liverpool FC’s football coach will look for the reasons for the lackluster performances of his charges in the coming days. Jürgen Klopp said after Wednesday’s 1-4 loss in the Champions League Group A opener at SSC Napoli that he needed some time for such an analysis. On the contrary, the Italian media described the evening under Vesuvius as magical for SSC, and “Partenopei” coach Luciano Spalletti stated that nothing is impossible with such a team’s form. The home team started the duel as if from a party, Victor Osimhen hit the post in the first minute. Four minutes later, Piotr Zelinski scored the first goal when he converted a penalty kick on the hand of James Milner. However, Klopp was especially displeased by the other goals in the first half from the boots of Andre Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone after gross mistakes by Joe Gomez, and the home team led 3-0: “We served these goals to the opponent on a plate. We were not in the game for the whole match. We were not compact , neither defensively nor offensively.” Frustration in the Reds camp is gradually increasing. Klopp’s words about lack of compactness were also repeated by “The Reds” defender Andy Robertson. “Naples played as if they had one more man. They were clearly the better team. We have to go back to the basics of our game and be much more compact.” Liverpool had slightly better possession statistics, but the Neapolitans had more shots on goal and beyond, which suggests that they played more directly than the opposition. “We’re missing a lot of things. We’re not working as a team. We have to try to find a setting to improve in almost everything. It has nothing to do with personal things or anything else. I need time to think about it. My job is to find out , what’s going on,” added Klopp. Photo gallery (6) Source: TASR/AP/Andrew Medichini In the camp of the Italians the atmosphere was completely opposite, the president of Naples Aurelio De Laurentiis had a moving evening. He wrote on the social network: “An unforgettable triumph. An evening that those present at the stadium will talk about for a long time. I will remember it forever. It is a great pride to be the president of this club, which is masterfully led by Spalletti and his assistants. I congratulate everyone and thank you.” Nothing is impossible with this performance, but Spalletti dampened his enthusiasm after these statements: “It’s an important result, because then there are always analyzes of how it was born. In Liverpool, this result causes a bit of a stir, but the important thing is that we can always play our football no matter who is up against us. That is what defines the level of personality. You are never satisfied with the result, it would mean that the team has limits. But it was not ‘just a good’ game and with this performance it is not nothing impossible. Now we also have to think about good training.” Photo gallery (6) Source: SITA/AP/Andrew Medichini In the second half, the home captain decided to make a double substitution, in the 52nd minute he sent a pair of fresh players Hirving Lozano and Alessio Zerbina onto the pitch. After this moment, the guests got more into the game. “That’s also why I wouldn’t be very happy in any case. Because it was necessary to keep the players on their toes. One detail is enough to change the psychology of the game and complicate it. Ten minutes after this double substitution, we left the initiative to them. But I can say that it was a positive start,” Spalletti was quoted as saying by gazzetta.it. In the next round, Liverpool will play at their home stadium, where they will welcome Ajax Amsterdam. Napoli travels to Scotland, where Glasgow Rangers await. “We’re looking forward to it, but we’re only at the beginning of the group and we’ve got some tough matches ahead of us. All the new players are excellent and they’re good guys too. They got used to it straight away,” said Zelinski. Photo gallery (6) Source: SITA/AP/Andrew Medichini Smooth victory for Ajax The second match of Group A also produced a smooth victory for the home team. Ajax Amsterdam had a clear advantage in the duel with Glasgow Rangers, which was also shown by the statistics – Ajax had 70 percent possession of the ball and won 17:5 on shots and 9:1 on goal. After goals from Edson Alvarez, Steven Berghuis, James Sands and Mohammed Kudus, the Dutch champion triumphed 4-0 and settled at the top of the table. “We are very disappointed. We knew the Champions League would be at a high level and I think it showed. We have to work to be ready for a game like this,” Scotland coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst told uefa.com . Photo gallery for the article Number of photos: 6 Author: © Zoznam Source: TASR