One important thing to remember after Napoli 2-0 Liverpool

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It’s important to remember one thing after Napoli beat Liverpool 2-0 in Naples – the Reds lost there last season, too.

And that’s especially significant for two reasons.

Firstly, this is a much weaker group than last season. Liverpool and Napoli are very strong favourites to progress this year but that wasn’t the case 12 months ago.

Paris Saint-Germain were the top seeds then and only two of the three were qualifying. As it turned out, victory over Napoli in the final game was just about enough for Liverpool.

There shouldn’t be a repeat of that this year and we thought beforehand that the Reds could afford a defeat. Liverpool and Napoli will both expect to qualify, despite the 2-0 result.

And this is a different Liverpool to last season – they’re European champions, after all.

There’s little worry that they’ll lose their nerve, little worry that they’ll struggle to compete. Despite this loss, Liverpool can still win the whole thing, just as last season.

They’ll be disappointed but far from disheartened. This is a team that can still win the whole thing after losing in the group stage – especially when it’s Napoli.