It was another frustrating night in Europe for Liverpool as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Spartak Moscow.The match followed a similar structure to the Reds’ 2-2 draw against Sevilla two weeks ago. They had plenty more shots than their Russian opponents but were unable to turn their dominance into three points.Philippe Coutinho equalised shortly after Fernando had given the hosts the lead but there was to be no winner, and Jurgen Klopp is left to rue another missed opportunity.Incredibly, Liverpool have scored just six goals from their last 121 shots. Much is made about the club’s leaky defence but there’s clearly work to do at the other end of the pitch, too.Klopp will still be confident about progressing from a group that also includes Maribor, who were beaten 3-0 by Sevilla last night and host Liverpool on October 17, but any talk of his side posing a serious threat to the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona is quickly dwindling.
Liverpool fluffed a 4 v 2
Indeed, there’s much to be said about a team that can’t finish off a 4-on-2 scenario.
Liverpool broke on the stroke of half-time after a Spartak corner was cleared. Roberto Firmino stormed forward, with Jordan Henderson to his right, Mohamed Salah to his left and Sadio Mane in front.
The Brazilian opted to pass to Henderson, who played the ball across the box for either Mane or Salah to finish.
Mane reached the ball but missed it and Salah missed an empty net from a tight angle.
Mane was actually offside so it wouldn’t have counted had Salah scored, but it was still a dreadful waste of a glorious chance.
Watch: Liverpool completely mess a 4 v 2
The four players involved won’t need telling twice that they really should’ve finished that off.
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Klopp was disappointed at FT
Liverpool have picked up two points in the Champions League when they will feel as they should have six and Klopp expressed his disappointed afterwards.
“Of course,” he said when asked whether he was frustrated by the result, per Liverpool’s website.
“As I said it already a few times, we in this moment are not the luckiest team in world football, so it’s not that things go easy for us.
“We know now more about two teams in the group and both games we could have, or should have, won but we didn’t.”
The Liverpool boss admitted that there were some positives that he took from the game.
“In the end that’s always our fault, but we will carry on and carry on like this, or even better,” he continued.
“I saw a lot of good things tonight, it was not a perfect game, but there were a lot of good things.”
He’s probably itching to get back on the training ground with his players.