Liverpool made a remarkable comeback in the Champions League, winning its first match by 2-1 against Ajax Amsterdam in the competition after the shocking 4-1 drubbing against Napoli in the league opener.
Jurgen Klopp had earlier criticised his team for not giving 100 percent against Napoli, saying they were below average and could not fight back against the Italians.
Now, after the worst night of his Liverpool career, Klopp needed a reaction from his guys and they gave him something to cherish for the week.
Though it wasn’t particularly spectacular or convincing, the win is a plus for the beleaguered Liverpool who had to dig deeper to deliver a last minute victory.
Most pundits say the match was horrible to watch for the Liverpool side.
At some point, it appeared that Klopp’s team had their wings clipped and they would probably not score. Then Joël Matip appeared to nod in the winning goal in the 89th minute.
One more time, it was the VAR that saved the goal scorer. Ajax Amsterdam thought they’d cleared it off the line, but goal-line technology proved otherwise.
Is this the beginning of the end for Liverpool’s troubles? The point is there is still a lot of work for Klopp to do to get the team back to last season’s strength.
Mo Salah scored a goal in the 17th minute to give Liverpool the lead but soon, in the 27th minute, Mohammed Kudus levelled the scoreline.
Once again, Liverpool had more ball possession, made more passes with more accuracy than their opponents but Ajax defended very well until that last minute goal.
Klopp praised Liverpool’s tenacity against Ajax, but admitted the late win was only “the first step” toward reviving their Champions League campaign.
The Liverpool manager claimed his team’s performance was unrecognisable from the dreadful loss to Napoli last week, despite needing an 89th-minute header from Jol Matip to defeat the Dutch champions at Anfield.