The jubilant Anfield crowd were stunned as Napoli held Liverpool for a 1-1 draw in a Group E match of UEFA Champions League 2019-20 on Wednesday. Much to the surprise of everyone, the visitors put their strong opponent in the backfoot when they opened the scoring in the 21st minute.
A long ball from Di Lorenzo was received to perfection by Dries Mertens, who was onside before he tucked it away to the back of the net across Alisson Becker.
Despite owning lion’s share of ball possession, the Reds failed to equalise. Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret was on the top of his game and denied Virgil van Dijk and James Milner from scoring the first goal for the home team before the players went into the tunnel for the break.
Jurgen Klopp’s men took to the field more determined in the second half but it took them 20 minutes and a corner kick to see the back of the net as Dejan Lovren headed in the delivery from Milner.
After the equaliser, Liverpool came all guns blazing and pressed Napoli with a string of attacks. However, the touring defenders were equal on the task and played comprehensive football to nullify the lethal forward line of Liverpool.
The result has kept Liverpool in the top of the group with 10 points while Napoli seats behind them with 9 points.
Meanwhile, Fabinho sustained an injury and was substituted early on in the match. However, the nature of the injury is yet to be found and Klopp said it might take a day or two to know what exactly happened.
“He is a really hard one and couldn’t continue. I don’t want to say what I expect, because I hope in the moment it’s not that serious. But we’ll know more maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow. We’ll see,” Klopp was quoted as saying on the official website of Liverpool.
