Liverpool suffered an embarrassing Champions League defeat at the hands of Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday evening, as a brace from Milan Pavkov gave the Serbian minnows a 2-0 victory in the Rajko Mitic Stadium.
Having demolished Red Star at Anfield a fortnight ago 4-0, it was expected to be a fairly straight-forward three points for Jurgen Klopp's men, who were looking to cement their place at the top of their tough Champions League Group C table which includes Paris Saint-Germain and Napoli. However, Red Star had other ideas and two first-half goals from Pavkov sealed the shock win for the home side in front of a jubilant home crowd.
As last year's runners-up, it was no surprise to see Liverpool were red-hot favourites for the win and the bookmakers had priced them up as 2/11 shots before kick-off, while those that fancied Red Star causing a shock then could have got a monster 16/1 price with some bookmakers.
Red Star had failed to get a single shot on target at Anfield as they wilted under the Merseyside lights, but tonight they produced a stunning performance that saw Pavkov propel his name on to the world stage. The 24-year-old was bought for a meagre fee of £270k and spent most of last season on loan, but tonight he found himself dominating a Liverpool defence that had the likes of Virgil Van Dijk (£75m) and Alisson Becker (£66.8m).
That fee of £75m for Van Dijk is put into perspective by the fact that it is more than four times the amount Red Star Belgrade have spent in their entire history. A staggering statistic.
Ranked the 31st best team in the Champions League, Red Star have now given themselves a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament after picking up their first win in the elite European club tournament since 1992, but for Liverpool it's a defeat that could well have ramifications in relation to their progression, as they are likely to have to pick up points against PSG or Napoli, and Klopp can return to Merseyside tonight questioning his players, as a win tonight would've all-but sealed a place in the last-16.
He's just scored 2 goals against Van Dijk and Allison who are worth a combined £130M!
#REDLIV
