Liverpool 1-1 Napoli: Five things we learned as toothless Reds struggled

Toothless Liverpool drew 1-1 with Napoli in the Champions League as they struggled for fluency. Click here to read five things we learned from the match!

Dries Mertens opened the scoring in front of the Kop after Virgil van Dijk lost his aerial battle in the middle of the park and Dejan Lovren decided not to track Mertens, who made the most of Giovanni Di Lorezeno’s excellent pass and brilliantly shot past Alisson.

The Reds were strangely toothless and struggled for fluency throughout the first half, although they did click into gear as the opening stanza ticked down. Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino exchanged some neat passes, James Milner hit a good corner and a frustrated Jurgen Klopp got handed a yellow card.

This pattern continued in the second 45 and it took until 65 minutes in for Liverpool to restore parity. Lovren rose above the Napoli defence and headed home James Milner’s corner, to much delight from the home crowd.

But this failed to spark life from the home attack. Mohamed Salah had a fairly poor game and will need to do better against Brighton, while Carlo Ancelotti’s side deployed two banks for four and allowed the Reds to play in front of them.

The game petered out towards the end and Liverpool had to settle for a draw. Click through the slides below to read five things we learned from the disappointing game.