Piotr Zielinski was a double goal scoring hero for Napoli, on a day that his side humbled Liverpool and dealt a 4-1 hammer blow to our team.
Speaking after their historic victory, the 28-year-old told the club’s website (sscnapoli.it): ‘It was the perfect match – we dominated it. I’m delighted with my double. We were up against world-class players and we beat them, not just in the result: we outplayed them.
‘I don’t think Liverpool had an off game; it’s just that we were extraordinary today’.
It’s refreshing to maybe take the insight from the Italians, who are not crediting our poor performance to their victory – rather their brilliance on a wonderful night (for them).
We have not performed well in Naples under Jurgen Klopp and this has come during some of our most successful campaigns in recent memory.
There’s no doubting that we have had a bad start to the campaign and our performance inside the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium was far below par but perhaps there can be some room for admitting that our opposition played well too.
Luciano Spalletti’s team made it hard for our players to move the ball and their intense pressing felt like something we normally do to others, making it very difficult for us to play our own game.
We need a big upturn in form and results soon though, let’s hope the Reds can sort this bad run of form out and quickly.
#Ep58 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Rating Liverpool’s UCL group, making a new signing… & more!