Szoboszlai steps up in place of Salah to sink Inter as Liverpool fans sing Slot’s name

Dominik Szoboszlai scores the only goal of the night at San Siro to defeat Inter in the Champions League. Photograph: Claudia Greco/Reuters

First the Liverpool hierarchy protected Arne Slot’s authority by axing Mohamed Salah from a daunting Champions League assignment in Milan. The Liverpool team then followed suit by inflicting Inter’s first European home defeat since September 2022. A brooding superstar with a bruised ego watched from afar while Liverpool fans serenaded Slot at San Siro.

Salah might well have taken the decisive 88th-minute penalty had he not talked himself out of the trip to San Siro, another legend of the game that is showing its age. Instead it fell to Dominik Szoboszlai, the friend Salah had in effect argued should not be playing on the right ahead of him, to deliver a precious victory for Slot after Alessandro Bastoni had been penalised for pulling Florian Wirtz’s shirt in the box.