Luciano Spalletti claimed Napoli dropped their guard once they knew Liverpool would not win by the four-goal margin needed to top the group. He was correct, although that was never the priority for Jürgen Klopp given the doubts and questions circling over Liverpool’s direction. Just to inflict a first defeat of the season on the Serie A leaders was enough.
Usurping Napoli at the summit of Group A never looked a possibility at Anfield but that did not prevent Klopp signalled his intent when introducing Darwin Núñez in the 73rd minute of the finale. The Uruguay international made quite the impact. First he connected with a Kostas Tsimikas corner to force Alex Meret into a desperate save on, and almost just over, the goalline that spilled into the path of Mohamed Salah. The striker made no mistake from a yard out to equal Steven Gerrard’s club record of 41 European goals for Liverpool.
