Rio Ferdinand believes Liverpool have no reason to panic after losing 2-0 to Napoli on Tuesday night, with the result almost entirely down to a ‘soft penalty’ decision.
A tight game in Naples saw the deadlock broken in the 82nd minute when Andrew Robertson conceded a penalty for a foul on Jose Cellejon.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has since accused Callejon of diving to win the spot-kick, but Dries Mertens put the chance away, before Fernando Llorente doubled Napoli’s lead in injury time.
It is the second time in two seasons that Liverpool have lost away at Napoli in the group stage, after Lorenzo Insigne gave the Italians a 1-0 win last year.
Thanks to their solid performance and the fact they have experienced this before, former Manchester United defender Ferdinand does not believe there is anything for Liverpool to worry about after this loss.
‘They’ve been here before, lost games away from home in the Champions League last season and went on to win the cup so I don’t think they’ll be panicked,’ Ferdinand told BT Sport.
‘They knew it was going to be a tough game against a very experienced manager in [Carlo] Ancelotti and some experienced players.
‘I don’t think they didn’t perform or not play well. They gave away a soft penalty and then at this level you don’t really get an opportunity to get back into it against good teams.’
Liverpool appeared to be in little trouble of losing the game when Napoli took the lead, a sentiment the home manager agreed with.
Carlo Ancelotti said after the match: ‘Just when it seemed that all was lost and Liverpool had taken complete control of the game, the two goals came from curious and unusual circumstances.’
Following Robertson bringing down Callejon for the penalty, a mistake from Virgil van Dijk laid on the chance for Llorente to double Napoli’s lead.
A rare mistake from the Dutchman was the second of the ‘curious’ circumstances Ancelotti was referring to, although he did believe the penalty was rightly awarded.
‘It was fairly clear from where I was in the dugout but I don’t want to be drawn into an argument over that,’ said the Italian.
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