Liverpool fell to an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday evening. The trip to Serbia was always going to create problems for the Reds and when the home side found the back of the net first a rapturous support pushed their team further and further into ascendancy.
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| Image via The Australian |
Liverpool could have taken the lead when Daniel Sturridge failed to convert from about five yards out. It was very unlike the forward to miss a golden opportunity like that. This would be a chance Klopp's side would rue as the home side settled in.
Pavkov found Red Star's first goal of the night after heading in from a corner just after the 20-minute mark. He easily lost his man and for once there were perhaps a few questions being asked of Liverpool's defence.
A second goal for Pavkov just eight minutes later truly blew the wind out of Liverpool's sails. A good strike from range potentially could have been dealt with a bit better position wise by goalkeeper Alisson but nobody really saw that effort coming.
Two-nil up and playing at home, Red Star were not going to give away this victory easily and they fought valiantly to ensure Liverpool were unable to find the net. The Reds hit the woodwork twice and had several efforts blocked or saved by goalkeeper Borjan. Despite retaining 80% of possession Liverpool just couldn't find a goal.
A changed starting XI perhaps didn't help Jurgen Klopp as Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Joel Matip were all thrown in but didn't perform to their best level. The second half immediate introduction of Firmino and Joe Gomez didn't seem to help matters either and for me bringing on Origi was just sheer desperation.
It's one of the worst games I've seen from Liverpool in a very long time. We always seem to have to make things difficult for ourselves!
The other game in our group saw Napoli take on PSG, ending in a 1-1 draw this means that Group C is now completely wide open. Prior to playing a game in the group, I looked at PSG away and thought, anything from that is a bonus. As it turns out, we may well need a result in France to stop us crashing out of the Champions League. That PSG game is huge!
One thing I do know though is that Liverpool are capable of anything in Europe, this is not over yet.