Szoboszlai holds nerve from spot to secure vital win for Liverpool

The Liverpool hierarchy protected Arne Slot’s authority by axing Mohamed Salah from the Champions League trip to Milan.

- Andy Hunter

The Liverpool team followed suit by inflicting a first European home defeat on Internazi-onale since September 2022 courtesy of Dominik Szoboszlai’s 88th minute penalty. A brooding superstar with a bruised ego looked on from afar.

Salah would have been on penalty duties had he not talked himself out of a showpiece occasion at the 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’s shirt in the box with minutes remaining. 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 German official Felix Zwayer to the pitch-side monitor to review Bastoni’s foul.

Slot’s name echoed around the famous old stadium as Inter’s 18-match unbeaten European run on home soil came to an unexpected end.