Jurgen Klopp has slammed Liverpool’s performance in their 4-1 defeat to Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday night and says next opponents Wolves will be ‘laughing’ at the prospect of playing them at the weekend.
The Merseysiders – last season’s beaten finalists – gave a woeful first-half display in Naples and went into the half-time break three goals down, with Piotr Zielinski opening the scoring after just five minutes from the penalty spot.
Napoli saw another spot-kick saved before Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa doubled the scoreline while substitute Giovanni Simeone netted just minutes after coming on shortly before the break.
Liverpool’s back-line looked shambolic at times and Joe Gomez was sacrificed at half-time, though that did not stem the flow of the game and within two minutes of the restart Zielinski had netted a fourth goal for the hosts.
Luis Diaz fired back almost immediately but it did not kickstart a comeback, with Napoli seeing out a 4-1 victory to equal Liverpool’s worst-ever result in the Champions League.
Klopp was visibly dejected during the match and apologised to travelling supporters after the full-time whistle, while he was scathing of his side’s display in his post-match media duties and feels they need to ‘reinvent themselves’.
Speaking to BT Sport, he said of the result and performance: ‘Really tough, tough to take, I would say not that difficult to explain when you saw the game. The start with the two penalties. First and foremost Napoli played a really good game and we didn’t, that is the first explanation for the defeat.
‘The two penalties we concede are both – for sure one – a little bit unlucky but maybe you give them, only one goes in. Then the next two goals we served on a plate, that’s
Read more on metro.co.uk
metro.co.uk