Liverpool win without Salah as Szoboszlai penalty sees off Inter

Liverpool brushed off the absence of the exiled Mohamed Salah with a 1-0 Champions League victory over Inter Milan in San Siro.

With their regular penalty-taker left at home after his extraordinary outburst against head coach Arne Slot and the club after Saturday’s draw at Leeds it was left to Dominik Szoboszlai to step up and convert an 88th-minute spot-kick.

That may point to the future in one aspect but the manner of the victory, which moved Liverpool back into the top eight with an improved chance of avoiding the play-offs, offered the first signs of resilience of an otherwise brittle season.

Current form meant Salah’s presence in Italy may not have been the essential ingredient it had so often been but this represented progress against a team which had won seven of their last nine and was on an 18-match unbeaten home run in Europe.

The forward, who posted a picture of himself in an empty gym back at their AXA training complex earlier in the day, had paid the price for saying his relationship with Slot had broken down and he felt someone at the club was trying to force him out.

But with Cody Gakpo injured and Federico Chiesa ill it left Slot with just two senior forwards and he started both.

Yet despite costing a combined £200million Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike posed little threat with the ball and could do nothing to prevent one of Inter’s back three carrying the ball out significant distances.

When Ekitike raced on to Ibrahima Konate’s through-ball in a position usually assumed by Salah the France striker favoured his right foot, when the Egyptian would cut in on his left, and narrowed the angle so much Yann Sommer batted his shot behind easily.

The front two have rarely had the chance to play together so far