Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have gained simply two of their first six Premier League video games this season and there was to be no enchancment on their journey to Italy as Napoli raced into an early lead and by no means seemed again.
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk (C) reacts with Napoli’s Slovakian midfielder Stanislav Lobotka after Napoli gained the UEFA Champions League Group A primary leg soccer match between SSC Napoli and Liverpool FC on the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples on 7 September 2022. Picture: Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP
PARIS – Last season’s crushed finalists Liverpool received their Champions League marketing campaign off to a disastrous begin in a 4-1 defeat away to Napoli on Wednesday, whereas Robert Lewandowski hit a hat-trick in an enormous win for Barcelona.
Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich additionally received their campaigns underway with victories, however Rangers had been crushed 4-0 by Ajax within the Netherlands on their return to the group section of Europe’s elite membership competitors.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have gained simply two of their first six Premier League video games this season and there was to be no enchancment on their journey to Italy as Napoli raced into an early lead and by no means seemed again.
Piotr Zielinski transformed a fifth-minute penalty, and Victor Osimhen then had a second Napoli spot-kick saved by Alisson Becker.
Yet Napoli – who had defeated Liverpool in their very own stadium within the group stage in 2018 and in 2019 – had been 3-0 up on the break as Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s nice end was adopted by a tap-in from substitute Giovanni Simeone.
Liverpool fell additional behind two minutes into the second half as Zielinski adopted as much as rating after his preliminary effort was saved, however Luis Diaz did pull a objective again.
“We were miles too open. You can’t come to a place like this and not be compact. They were by miles the better team,” Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson instructed BT Sport.
“We have to wake up and quickly because we can’t perform like that.”
RANGERS CRUSHED BY AJAX
The six-time European Cup winners’ subsequent Group A outing is at dwelling to Ajax, who might have gained by greater than 4 at dwelling to Rangers, final season’s Europa League finalists enjoying within the Champions League group stage for the primary time since 2010.
Edson Alvarez headed Ajax in entrance earlier than a Steven Berghuis shot deflected in and an outstanding particular person strike from Mohammed Kudus made it 3-0 to Ajax by half-time.
Steven Bergwijn pounced on a poor backpass to seal the victory late on in Amsterdam, leaving Rangers supervisor Giovanni van Bronckhorst to offer a bleak evaluation of his facet’s prospects.
“To compete in the Champions League you spend hundreds of millions, for us to compete it is too much to ask,” insisted the Dutchman.
Lewandowski turned the primary participant to attain a Champions League hat-trick for 3 totally different golf equipment as the ex-Borussia Dortmund and Bayern star marked his first look within the competitors with Barcelona in model.
The Catalans crushed Czech champions Viktoria Plzen 5-1 in Group C, with Franck Kessie heading within the opener earlier than Lewandowski made it 2-0.
Jan Sykora pulled one again just for Lewandowski to attain once more earlier than half-time after which fireplace in his third objective halfway by way of the second half.
The Pole now has 89 Champions League objectives, three greater than Karim Benzema, with solely Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi forward of him.
Ferran Torres scored the fifth for Barca, whose subsequent recreation will probably be away to Lewandowski’s previous facet Bayern.
The Germans claimed a powerful 2-0 win away to Inter Milan on Wednesday, with Leroy Sane rounding Andre Onana for the first-half opener after which forcing Danilo D’Ambrosio right into a 66th-minute personal objective.
RICHARLISON BRACE FOR SPURS
Antonio Conte’s Tottenham struggled to interrupt down Marseille in north London till the French facet had Chancel Mbemba despatched off simply after half-time.
Richarlison scored the opener within the 76th minute, heading in Ivan Perisic’s cross, and the Brazilian headed in once more quickly after to make it 2-0.
“I think we felt a bit of pressure in this competition, but at the end we have to be pleased,” Conte mentioned of the victory.
Also in Group D, Sporting Lisbon scored three second-half objectives to win 3-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt, with former Spurs teenager Marcus Edwards, Francisco Trincao and Nuno Santos all on the right track.
In Group B, Antoine Griezmann headed the winner within the eleventh minute of damage time as Atletico Madrid beat Porto 2-1.
In an unimaginable end, Porto had Mehdi Taremi despatched off late on earlier than Mario Hermoso put Atletico forward with a deflected 92nd-minute strike.
Hermoso then conceded a penalty for handball, permitting Matheus Uribe to equalise within the 96th minute, just for Griezmann to have the final snort.
The solely different recreation in Champions League historical past to characteristic three objectives scored in stoppage time was Porto’s assembly with Atletico in December final yr.
In the identical group Abakar Sylla’s header was spilled over the road by the goalkeeper to offer Club Brugge a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen.