Despite going unbeaten in the first five games of their Champions League group, Napoli's 1-0 loss away to Liverpool in their last group match saw them exit the competition. Given their performances over the first five games, the visitors knew that a draw would have been enough to see them through, or even a 2-1 defeat, but lacked any kind of urgency on the night. There was no confidence and precision in possession throughout and an error from goalkeeper David Ospina helped Mohamed Salah to the crucial goal, which extended Napoli's wait for a win on English soil to seven games. They must now ponder the prospect of Europa League football after Christmas.
The Merseyside red manager, Juergen Klopp was happy about the win and in his post match conference he sent a strong message to the European football governing body UEFA.
"Wow, what a game. I am not sure a manager could be prouder of a team than I am. The only good thing about the first game at Napoli was that we were our ugly brothers and it wasn't us at all. Today, we had an opportunity to show more than we did in Italy and the boys played an outstanding game. The way we pressed them meant they had to change their game and they had no real key for us."
"Mo Salah scored an unbelievable goal and I have no idea how Alisson made a save like this, it was amazing. We could have scored more, but the last chance Sadio Mane had made no difference in the standings. It was wild and there were lots of counter attacks but we were ready for that. That is Anfield live and in colour.
"Uefa probably thought they could continue the competition without Liverpool, but not yet. I said if we went out, it wouldn't have been tonight, it would have been in Napoli when we deserved to lose, but tonight we deserved to win."

                                                                        Free football predictions & tips worldwide...