{"id":307761,"date":"2025-12-09T22:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307761\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T22:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:49:07","slug":"szoboszlai-steps-up-in-place-of-salah-to-sink-inter-as-liverpool-fans-sing-slots-name-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/307761\/","title":{"rendered":"Szoboszlai steps up in place of Salah to sink Inter as Liverpool fans sing Slot\u2019s name | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Liverpool hierarchy protected Arne Slot\u2019s authority by axing Mohamed Salah from the Champions League<\/a> trip to Milan. The Liverpool team followed suit by inflicting a first European home defeat on Internazionale since September 2022 courtesy of Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s 88th-minute penalty. A brooding superstar with a bruised ego looked on from afar.<\/p>\n

Salah would have been on penalty duties had he not talked himself out of a showpiece occasion at San Siro, another legend of the game that is showing its age. Instead it fell to Szoboszlai, the friend he argued should not be playing on the right ahead of him, to give Slot a precious victory after Alessandro Bastoni was penalised for pulling Florian Wirtz\u2019s shirt in the box with minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

Liverpool had been resolute and fiercely committed to that point, well worthy of the point that was heading their way until the video assistant referee sent the German official Felix Zwayer to the pitchside monitor to review Bastoni\u2019s foul.<\/p>\n

Slot\u2019s name echoed around the famous old stadium as Inter\u2019s 18-match unbeaten European run on home soil came to an unexpected end.<\/p>\n

Salah gave Liverpool no option but to leave him out of the trip to Italy. Slot\u2019s authority over the rest of the squad would have been seriously undermined had he travelled. The timing of the interview at Elland Road was bad enough with Slot, Salah and his team-mates all struggling \u2013 and supposedly sticking together in adversity \u2013 but made worse by the limited options available to Liverpool in Milan. Slot was unable to fill his bench with Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo also absent. Without the source of 46 Champions League goals for Liverpool the team\u2019s highest goalscorer in the competition on the night was Virgil van Dijk, with five.<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s bench may have been threadbare but Slot was still able to field a \u00a3204m frontline partnership in Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitik\u00e9. The summer signings started in front of a midfield diamond in which Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister all had freedom to rotate. The result was a hugely encouraging first-half display from Liverpool that afforded better protection to their defence and sowed confusion in the Inter ranks. It took around 40 minutes for the hosts to find their rhythm and threaten.<\/p>\n

The first notable act of the night, given the peculiar circumstances, was the sound of Slot\u2019s name being chanted by the sizeable Liverpool support high up in the gods at San Siro. Salah\u2019s song did not get an airing.<\/p>\n

Alessandro Bastoni commits the foul on Florian Wirtz of Liverpool to give away the vital penalty. Photograph: Giuseppe Cottini\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Inter\u2019s uncertain start was not helped by losing the midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu to injury after only 11 minutes. The central defender Francesco Acerbi followed him to the treatment room with an apparent hamstring problem 20 minutes later. Lautaro Mart\u00ednez, the captain, also collected an early booking for a ridiculously late foul on Andy Robertson. Keeping both legs on the ground as he connected with the full back\u2019s shins saved the striker from greater punishment.<\/p>\n

Liverpool were controlled, measured and exploiting space around Inter\u2019s three-man central defence. Jones forced Yann Sommer into a decent low save after weaving his way clear on the edge of the penalty area. Sommer also denied Ekitik\u00e9 at his near post after the France international had been released by Ibrahima Konat\u00e9\u2019s long ball down the right. Acerbi injured himself attempting to halt the Liverpool striker.<\/p>\n

The French duo combined again from the resulting corner to give Liverpool what would have been a merited lead. Konat\u00e9 headed home from close range after Ekitik\u00e9 turned on Szoboszlai\u2019s set-piece delivery. A first look at a replay showed the ball looping off Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s arm yet it took almost four minutes for the match officials to disallow the goal. Zwayer was sent to the pitchside monitor after two and a half minutes. Another minute later Zwayer ruled that, although the ball may have been headed on to Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s arm by Van Dijk, the striker\u2019s arm was in an unnatural position and the goal would not count. Such is the luck of a coach in need of a break.<\/p>\n

Almost inevitably, Inter improved after the let-off and Mart\u00ednez drew a fine save from Alisson with a bullet header from Alessandro Bastoni\u2019s cross.<\/p>\n

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Cristian Chivu\u2019s team were more composed on the ball after the restart but the contest remained evenly matched and, in truth, fairly uneventful. Bastoni swiped clear in front of his own goal after a flowing Liverpool move involving Ryan Gravenberch and Isak teed up Robertson for a dangerous cross from the left. When Nicol\u00f2 Barella found Mart\u00ednez in space 20 yards from the Liverpool goal, Van Dijk made an important block to deny the Argentina international.<\/p>\n

Slot introduced Wirtz for the quiet Isak and Conor Bradley for Joe Gomez in the 67th minute. Bradley almost fashioned a breakthrough for Ekitik\u00e9 with his first touch but the striker\u2019s first time effort struck Manuel Akanji and rebounded to Gravenberch, who skied over.<\/p>\n

Bradley made a huge impact, forcing Sommer to save at his near post before driving at the Inter defence in the lead-up to Liverpool\u2019s penalty. A superb night for Slot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Liverpool hierarchy protected Arne Slot\u2019s authority by axing Mohamed Salah from the Champions League trip to Milan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-307761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}