Klopp boys sunk by late sucker punch

SO MUCH was made of the poor quality of the Liverpool team who last visited Naples, but at least that side escaped with a point.

Jurgen Klopp’s side may have arrived with far more star quality than the much-maligned Roy Hodgson team of 2010, but their performance was incredulously worse.

Klopp will have to file this one down as one to forget, because his side’s Champions’ League progress could have been derailed by certainly their worst performance of this season.

They didn’t record a single shot on target and only escaped a hammering because of some timid finishing from the Italians.

That was probably a product of a shocking playing surface but could not explain Liverpool’s lifeless performance.

Cleared

Napoli took all of 89 minutes to produce the winner their display deserved, and it came from their best player Lorenzo Insigne, who slammed home a right-wing Jose Callejon cross to send the Stadio San Paolo wild.

The Reds almost got away with it only because of a fine performance from both Liverpool centre halves, and Joe Gomez in particular, who cleared brilliantly from the line late in the game after a seemingly goal-bound shot from the excellent Callejon.

Escape seemed to be the only aim as the contest progressed, with the visitors gifting the ball away constantly, and folding badly in the dying minutes when sub Dries Mertens also smacked a volley against the bar.

Klopp had surprised everyone by relegating the experience of his captain Henderson to the bench for this fixture, despite recognising just how tough it is to visit such as passionate a stadium