Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson explains where his team went wrong against Napoli in Champions League
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has blamed his side’s lack of cutting edge for their 2-0 defeat away from home by Napoli.
Liverpool began the defence of their Champions League crown on a losing note as Dries Mertens’ penalty and Fernando Llorente’s injury-time strike handed Napoli victory.
On a balmy night at the intimidating Stadio San Paolo, the Reds fell behind in the 82nd minute when Mertens converted from the spot after Andy Robertson had upended Jose Callejon in the area.
Substitute Llorente – part of the Tottenham side beaten by the Reds in last season’s Champions League final – then took advantage of a mistake from Virgil Van Dijk to bag his first goal for Napoli after joining them earlier this month.
“(In the) first half I still felt we played some good stuff, it’s that final bit we were just missing today. At home Napoli are a good side, they are going to create some chances,” Henderson told BT Sport.
“You’ve got to be prepared to defend as a team which again, I felt we did. We won some great balls in midfield and counter-attack, but it was just that last little bit and then obviously the mistakes.
“Overall, we can be better of course, and like I say we’ll take responsibility. We’ll move forward and try and react in the right way.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp added: “This was a much better game than we played last time when we lost 1-0 in the last minute (to Napoli last season). It was an open game, in moments we controlled the game, but we had a lot of counter-attacks and didn’t finish them off.
“That’s a problem. Then in the second half we had this wild game, we were running, they were running. They’ve killed everybody on the pitch, started controlling again and then we’ve conceded a penalty. Of course that doesn’t help and I’ve seen it now, I don’t think that’s a penalty.
“For me it’s clear and obvious, no penalty, because Callejon jumps before he has any contact. But we cannot change that so we have to be critical with ourselves. We did well in a lot of moments, we played a lot of good football but we didn’t finish off.
“We controlled it in moments, but we had not enough chances in the end. What you saw was a lot of respect from both sides, we both defended well and each ball we lost, or they lost, was immediately a threat.
“The last ball is the most difficult ball anyway, and if you are not in the right circumstances it’s even more difficult. And so there were moments when we should have done better, for sure.”
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