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 thanks to a late penalty which left the Italians baffled and livid.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s spot-kick in the 88th minute 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 which Szoboszlai gobbled up.
“The penalty did look soft but that’s given anywhere else on the pitch,” said Andy Robertson to Amazon Prime.
“We all needed it. We know the results and performances aren’t good enough. It’s important this club is in the Champions League. It was a huge result for all of us.”
Inter’s players were enraged at the awarding of the penalty 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.
“We are disappointed, angry, a bit of everything,” said Inter midfielder Piotr Zielinski to Sky Sport in Italy.
“It was a good performance, we lacked a little something in the final third to put it into the net, but the refereeing decisions… If they give penalties for this, then everything will be a penalty.”
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 Arabian sources saying on Tuesday they wanted to recruit the 33-year-old in January, even though he signed a new contract in April.
“It’s difficult but it’s a collective difficult situation that we’re all in,” said Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk.
“Between Mo and the club, things are going on and he’s not here today, that’s the reality. I don’t think anything has changed in terms of our focus and determination.”
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 Bastoni’s cross too close to 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 controversial winning penalty.
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