European champions Liverpool’s friendly match with Napoli at BT Murrayfield stadium ended in a 3-0 defeat, seven days before their domestic campaign begins against Manchester City in the Community Shield.
The game was played in front of 65,442 spectators making it the largest attendance at a football match in Edinburgh for almost 70-years and the largest in Scotland for over 30-years.
Jurgen Klopp selected the same starting XI that drew 2-2 with Sporting CP in New York.
Former Rangers loanee Ryan Kent missing the game due to illness.
There was a familiar face in the Italian dugout as Napoli are managed by Carlo Ancelotti who managed Chelsea to the league title 10 years ago.
Ahead of kick off a piper played Amazing Grace as a tribute to the late/great Bill Shankly on the roof of the East Stand before a guitarist played a current Liverpool song about conquering Europe.
Liverpool took the field wearing an all-black kit whilst Napoli wore their traditional light blue and white. The usual Murrayfield flames shot high into the sky to welcome both sides.
Nine tenths of the famous stadium was clad in red however small corner was reserved for the Italians who made themselves heard throughout.
In contrast, apart from a wonderful rendition of the club anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ the Liverpool fans were strangely subdued throughout.
Scotland international Andy Robertson received a warm welcome from the fans and he created the first chance when his fourth-minute delivery from the left that found Divock Origi, unmarked but his flick went just past the post.
From there, Napoli seized control and Carlo Ancelotti’s side took the lead when Lorenzo Insigne curled the ball home from the edge of the box.
Napoli continued to dominate and doubled their lead before the half-hour when exploiting an opportunity on the left flank squared the ball for Arek Milik, who toe-poked it into the net from close range.
Just before the break Georginio Wijnaldum had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.
Napoli added a third in the 51st minute when Simon Mignolet’s save from Insigne’s shot bounced off one of his own defenders and presented substitute Amin Younes with a tap-in.
The game petered out as Klopp made 10 changes during the second half, including a debut appearance for 16-year-old Harvey Elliott.
After the game Robertson told LTV: “We were miles off it and Napoli outplayed us
“It is something we need to look at because the season starts for real next Sunday. We were pressing in ones and twos when it is usually threes and fours. Sometimes we looked a bit foolish.
“We’ve got one more game before it gets competitive. It’s not crisis meetings or anything like that. When the season comes round, I’ve got no doubt we will be ready. We need to start winning games.”
Klopp added “The start and finish were good, but in between we conceded simple goals.
“We need to do better. I don’t want to look for an excuse – and Napoli started pre-season at the same time as us – but their season starts three weeks after us so they can train nice and smoothly, but we have to work hard in four weeks and sometimes you have heavy legs in games like this as a result.
“I knew before we started it would be exceptionally difficult this summer. From tomorrow [Monday], we have everyone but Sadio Mane and that’s when we can really start preparing.”
Liverpool: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnott, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Milner, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Origi. Subs: Lonergan, Lovren, Gomez, Lallana, Brewster, Lewis, However, Duncan, Wilson, Elliott, Van den Berg
Napoli Meret, Di Lorenzo, Maksimovic, Manolas, Duarte, Callejon, Zielinski, Insigne, Mertens, Milik, Verdi. Subs: Idasiak, Gaetano, Younes, Hysaj, Tutino, Chiriches, Karnezis, Luperto, Choulam.
Referee Bobby Madden
Attendance 65,442
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
