<\/p>\n
Liverpool were thrashed by Napoli in their first Champions League Group A game on a night to forget in Italy.<\/p>\n
Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side were 3-0 down at half time but it could easily have been more as Alisson saved a penalty and Virgil van Dijk made a goalline block.<\/p>\n
Piotr Zielinski put Napoli ahead from the spot in the fifth minute after Victor Osimhen had hit the post.<\/p>\n
Andre-Frank Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone extended Napoli\u2019s lead, before Zielinski scored again after the break.<\/p>\n
It was a terrible opening half from Liverpool as Joe Gomez struggled to deal with Osimhen and was relieved when the Napoli forward trudged off with an injury before half-time.<\/p>\n
His replacement, Simeone, needed just three minutes to score on his Champions League debut as Liverpool looked shell-shocked by the home side\u2019s relentless forward approach.<\/p>\n
There were chances for the visitors \u2013 Van Dijk had a header well saved, Mohamed Salah struck an effort at the goalkeeper and a teasing cross bounced dangerously off Harvey Elliott\u2019s knee at the back post.<\/p>\n
But Liverpool were sloppy in possession \u2013 even Salah mis-controlled a good pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold when well-placed in the box \u2013 and their defensive mistakes were punished by an expressive Napoli side.<\/p>\n
Any hope of a second-half comeback were over when Zielinski chipped a finish over Alisson from close range to make it 4-0 and though Luis Diaz curled in for an immediate response and came close with a diving header, Liverpool were deservedly beaten.<\/p>\n
Deadline-day signing Arthur Melo came on for his debut late in the second half and fellow midfielder Thiago returned from injury to make a brief cameo, but Liverpool will head home having now won just two of their last seven matches in all competitions.<\/p>\n
From the very first minute, Liverpool were on the back foot in Naples.<\/p>\n
Osimhen gave them an early warning when he rounded Alisson and fired against the post from a tight angle.<\/p>\n
Napoli, though, needed only five minutes to take the lead when Zielinski coolly slotted in his penalty after handball against James Milner.<\/p>\n
A typical Klopp side would have been expected to bounce back immediately, but this season Liverpool have looked tired, demotivated and seriously out of form.<\/p>\n
What followed instead was only humiliation as the hosts were ruthless, while Liverpool made numerous mistakes and struggled to get a stronghold of the game with talisman Salah having several poor touches.<\/p>\n
Osimhen ran the struggling Gomez ragged and Napoli could have scored at least another two goals, were it not for a goalline clearance from Van Dijk to deny Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and a penalty save from Allison to thwart Osimhen after the lively frontman had been caught by Van Dijk.<\/p>\n
Former Fulham midfielder Anguissa doubled Napoli\u2019s lead in style as a quick one-two ripped apart Liverpool\u2019s defence, before Kvaratskhelia set up Simeone\u2019s third.<\/p>\n
When the whistle finally blew for the break, Klopp sprinted straight down the tunnel.<\/p>\n
The last time Liverpool conceded three goals in the first half of a Champions League game was in October 2014 when they lost 3-0 to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an embarrassing 45 minutes,\u201d former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand said on BT Sport,<\/p>\n
Liverpool at least improved in the second half but Napoli remained in complete control.<\/p>\n
The impressive Zielinski added the fourth two minutes after the restart and Diaz\u2019s goal in the 49th minute was no consolation for the disappointing six-time European champions.<\/p>\n
BBCSPORT<\/p>\n
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Liverpool were thrashed by Napoli in their first Champions League Group A game on a night to forget in Italy. Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side were 3-0 down at half time but it could easily have been more as Alisson saved a penalty and Virgil van Dijk made a goalline block. Piotr Zielinski put Napoli ahead from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1200543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[774,4375,674,1958,1508,5176],"class_list":["post-1200542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-champions","tag-humiliates","tag-league","tag-liverpool","tag-match","tag-napoli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1200542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}