Liverpool bounced back from a damaging row with Mohamed Salah by beating Inter Milan 1-0 on Tuesday and kicking their Champions League campaign back into life.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s late penalty gave the Reds a huge win at the San Siro in the absence of Egypt star Salah, who was left in England after publicly criticising manager Arne Slot at the weekend.
Liverpool fans loudly chanted Slot’s name at the end of a largely drab match which was decided by Felix Zwayer’s decision to give the English champions a perfect chance to snatch the points.
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Inter’s players were enraged at the awarding of the spot-kick for a light shirt tug by Alessandro Bastoni on Florian Wirtz, but it gave Slot a happy end to a troubled few days.
The closest either team came to scoring before then was when Ibrahima Konate had his close-range header ruled out, after a lengthy VAR check, for a Hugo Ekitike handball in the 37th minute.
Tuesday’s win puts Liverpool on 12 points from six games and inside the top eight positions which offer direct qualification for the last 16, ahead of Wednesday’s fixtures.
Inter, meanwhile, are fifth on the same tally but have lost their last two European fixtures and created nearly nothing against an injury-hit Liverpool who were missing not just rebel star Salah but also unfit Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo.
Last season 16 points was enough to skip the play-offs and Cristian Chivu’s team are by no means guaranteed that as they host Arsenal before travelling to Borussia Dortmund in their final two league phase fixtures.
And another defeat in a big game means dropping out of the top eight is a real prospect.
Liverpool’s trip to Milan has been dominated by Salah’s extraordinary criticism of Slot, who on Monday admitted that he had “no clue” as to whether the rebel attacker had played his last game for the Reds.
Salah sparked a firestorm when he said he felt like he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club and no longer had a relationship with Slot after being left on the bench for Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds, the third match in a row for which he has been relegated to the role of substitute.
His outburst led to Saudi Arabia saying on Tuesday it will do “whatever it can” to recruit the 33-year-old in January, even though he signed a new contract in April.
Liverpool had won just four times in 15 matches in all competitions coming into Tuesday’s match but Inter failed to pile any early pressure on their opponents.
Inter didn’t have their first shot of any description until the 37th minute while Liverpool, who were nowhere near their best, had good attempts from Curtis Jones and Ryan Gravenberch before Konate’s header was eventually ruled out.
That woke up both Inter and a strangely flat home crowd of nearly 74,000 and Lautaro Martinez ended up wasting the best chance of the first half when he headed Alessandro Bastoni’s cross straight at Alisson Becker.
But the second half was a total flop and as the minutes passed, it became clear that a stalemate was fine for both teams until Szoboszlai rifled home his winning penalty.
BLUES SLUMP CONTINUES
Charles De Ketelaere inspired Atalanta’s stirring fightback to beat Chelsea 2-1 in the Champions League as the Blues’ winless run extended to four matches on Tuesday.
Joao Pedro’s first-ever Champions League goal put Chelsea ahead in the first half in Bergamo.
But the Blues lost their momentum after the interval and former West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca grabbed the equaliser before De Ketelaere, who provided the assist for Atalanta’s leveller, capped his influential display with the late winner.
Chelsea found it impossible to subdue Belgium forward De Ketelaere, who has six goals and seven assists in his last 12 Champions League appearances.
Since their memorable 3-0 win over Barcelona in the Champions League on November 25, Chelsea have gone four matches without a victory in all competitions.
Enzo Maresca’s 11th-placed side have 10 points from six league phase games and their bid for a top eight finish — which guarantees automatic qualification for the last 16 — is now on a knife-edge.
RESULTS
UEFA Champions League league phase, matchday six results on Tuesday:
In Astana Kairat Almaty (KAZ) 0 Olympiacos (GRE) 1 (Martins 73)
In Munich, Germany Bayern Munich (GER) 3 (Gnabry 65, Karl 69, Tah 77) Sporting Lisbon (POR) 1 (Kimmich 54-og)
In Milan, Italy Inter Milan (ITA) 0 Liverpool (ENG) 1 (Szoboszlai 88-pen)
In Barcelona, Spain Barcelona (ESP) 2 (Kounde 50, 53) Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) 1 (Knauff 21)
In Bergamo, Italy Atalanta (ITA) 2 (Scamacca 55, De Ketelaere 83) Chelsea (ENG) 1 (Joao Pedro 25)
In London Tottenham (ENG) 3 (Zima 26-og, Kudus 50-pen, Simons 79-pen) Slavia Prague (CZE) 0
In Eindhoven, Netherlands PSV Eindhoven (NED) 2 (Til 10, Pepi 85) Atletico Madrid (ESP) 3 (Alvarez 37, Hancko 52, Sorloth 56)
In Monaco Monaco (FRA) 1 (Balogun 68) Galatasaray (TUR) 0
In Brussels Union Saint-Gilloise (BEL) 2 (Khalaili 5, 71) Marseille (FRA) 3 (Paixao 15, Greenwood 41, 58)
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