STUNNED: Liverpool walk a lonely road in Serbia

Liverpool suffered their second defeat in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday losing 2-0 away to Red Star Belgrade at the Rajko Mitic stadium

It was the first UEFA Champions League win for the Serbian champions this season after losing 4-0 in the reverse fixture at Anfield a fortnight ago.

A first-half brace from Milan Pavkov denied Liverpool a third win in group C. The Reds had earlier lost to Napoli on matchday 2 of the competition.

Liverpool looked vulnerable in the opening minutes of the game and it was no surprise that the Reds conceded a goal after 20 minutes.

Twice Liverpool hit the woodwork, with a Robertson cross dropping on top of the bar and a scuffed Salah grazing the outside of the upright. Neither, though, were particularly close to troubling goalkeeper Milan Borjan.

Salah could have capped off his muted performance with a stoppage-time goal but, when the ball broke kindly, his rushed attempt was easily held. There would not even be a consolation.

At full time, Klopp could have looked to the statistics, noted Liverpool’s 23 shots to Red Star’s 10, and attempted to mount a defence of the performance. Yet the great volume of attempts did not make up their lack of quality. When asked to put his finger on what went wrong, the Liverpool manager pointed out: “I’ve only got 10 fingers.”

For last year’s runners-up, reaching this year’s round of 16 is suddenly in doubt.