Expect those Liverpool fans who followed Jurgen Klopp’s advice in May to “book your hotels” in Istanbul for the 2023 Champions League final to have refundable rates.
In the moments after the defeat to Real Madrid in Paris, an emotional Klopp vowed to oversee Liverpool’s return to the world’s biggest club game in 12 months and urged disheartened supporters to follow their dream.
On this evidence, Liverpool will be lucky to reach the last 16 in 2023. The tournament which has often been a wonderful and happy diversion from domestic affairs could not have started in the worst possible way for Klopp and his players here in Naples.
Liverpool suffered an embarrassing start to their Champions League campaign, suffering a 4-1 defeat in Italy against Napoli.
This, frankly, was a disgrace, a display so miserable and disjointed that it made it easy to label this as the worst European performance of the Klopp era. All credit to Napoli, who were young, aggressive and dynamic, for inflicting that damage, but Liverpool certainly helped them.
Three goals down at half-time – an Alisson Becker penalty save prevented the scoreline from being even more emphatic – it was hard to believe that it had only been 103 days since Liverpool faced Madrid, looking to conquer Europe for a seventh . time
How the problems were mounting for Klopp, who had the dumbfounded look of a man who had just watched his house crumble in front of him. The biggest compliment I would have paid Napoli, privately, is that they did everything I would want my own team to do.
Piotr Zielinski opened the scoring for the home side from the penalty spot before scoring Napoli’s fourth goal in the 47th minute.
What he wanted and what he got were two completely different things. Liverpool were an absolute disaster and the way they were cut open time and time again was an affront to the values this team prides itself on.
It was clear within 42 seconds that Liverpool were there to be dismantled – Napoli had seven players on the halfway line at the start, waiting to burst forward, but it was a skid; they went back to launch their attack and threw Red’s out of position.
The play ended with Victor Osimhen, the Nigeria international, leaping around Alisson, who had faded outside his area, but agonizingly, his shot crashed against the side of the post. This jolt should have woken up Liverpool but instead they froze.
Within four minutes, they were behind. Piotr Zielinski, a player Klopp tried to sign for Liverpool in 2016, broke into the box and shot but his effort was saved by the hand of James Milner; Referee Carlos del Cerro Grande did not hesitate to point and Zielinski duly converted.
Games at this stadium have always given Liverpool a headache, but this was the first time they fit in here so early. Sensing the opportunity that something special could happen, the locals created a noise like thunder and watched Naples play with lightning electricity.
Joe Gomez was the man Klopp would make responsible at half-time, removing the centre-back, but it wasn’t about the efforts of one man. Trent Alexander-Arnold was woeful, Virgil van Dijk was so horribly offside, Fabinho was wooden, Milner so off the pace.
Every time Napoli rushed into dangerous areas, it looked like they would score. Osimhen, with his changes of clothes and his enthusiasm, drove Van Dijk and company to distraction and should have grabbed an own goal in the 18th minute after being teed up by the Dutchman.
VAR advised Del Cerro Grande to look at the monitor at the side of the pitch and did not hesitate to award another spot-kick, but Osimhen was unable to convert as Alisson dived to his right to beat a a point he had no genuine conviction about.
Giovanni Simeone took advantage of poor defending to fire in a third for Napoli to cap a sensational first half from the home side.
Any fears that Napoli would be left to rue this foul were quickly dispelled. Van Dijk had already cleared a shot off the line from Kvicha Kvaratskhella, the Georgian prodigy who is earning such rave reviews, before the 21-year-old created the second.
They’ve taken to calling him ‘Karadona’ – in these parts, the accolades don’t go any higher – and his surge on the byline in the 31st minute set up Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, another Fulham striker, to beat Alisson at his nearby post.
Two would quickly become three as Kvaratskhella braved non-existent challenges to deliver a through ball that gave Giovanni Simeone, son of Atletico Madrid manager Diego, the easiest chance to score first time for Naples.
This was where you could see how deep Liverpool’s problems run: there was finger-slapping, shouting and arms raised in exasperation, the tell-tale signs of a team that isn’t functioning properly. Klopp ran to the dressing room to see if he could call for an answer, but none was forthcoming.
In-form winger Luis Díaz pulled one back for the visitors in the 49th minute, but the Reds could not reduce the deficit any further.
Did anything he said during those 15 minutes make a difference? Obviously not. Joel Matip replaced Gómez but, in the 48th minute, another counter allowed Zielinski to plunder his second and Napoli’s fourth and leave historians searching for comparable misery.
Numerically, this was Liverpool’s worst European night since Ajax thrashed Bill Shankly’s side in the late 1960s 5-1, but the impoverished nature of it all made one think of the 1990s, when they were as effective on the continent as a household plug.
Luis Díaz, at least, scored a consolation but that will not bring any kind of heat to Klopp. One game down and they face an almighty challenge to get out of Group A. Istanbul has never seemed so far away.
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