Who knows what the mood and headlines would have been had Dominik Szoboszlai not kept his nerve from the penalty spot? The noise around Mohamed Salah would only have intensified, and more dropped points without their talisman would have fuelled the crisis narrative.
Instead, it was Liverpool’s standout player of the season who took responsibility from 12 yards while the usual penalty-taker watched from home, almost 1,000 miles away. The image of the squad walking towards the away end and the travelling supporters chanting Arne Slot’s name at full-time said everything.
After a chaotic and draining few days, Slot and Liverpool finally had a night they could enjoy. It was their fourth win at San Siro in as many years, but more significantly their first Champions League away victory without Salah since 2009. Whether it proves a genuine turning point for Slot remains to be seen, but the occasion felt huge – not least with chief executive Michael Edwards watching on in Milan.
On Monday, Alisson Becker had publicly insisted the squad were still behind their manager during arguably the toughest spell of his career. On the pitch, the team backed those words with an assured performance, shaped by Slot’s tactical tweaks, and a clean sheet that was badly needed after the collapse at Leeds on Saturday.
Above all, the togetherness on display after a turbulent 72 hours stood out. With a reduced 19-man squad, Liverpool went to Italy, dug in and got the job done.
Van Dijk and Robertson: “We all needed this”
For Virgil van Dijk, the result did not magically erase the problems of recent weeks, but it did underline what the team still stands for.
“It doesn’t change anything. There’s obviously so much noise from the outside world, which is normal when you don’t perform,” he told Amazon Prime Sport. “It’s deserved as well. We want to improve, we want to be consistent and win games. We’re not doing it as much as we like. We have to stick together and be a unit as we have been. That’s what Liverpool stands for.”
Left-back Andy Robertson echoed his captain’s feelings, stressing how vital this win was for everyone at the club. “We all needed it. We know the results and performances aren’t good enough. It’s important that this club is in the Champions League. It was a huge result for all of us.”
After a miserable run of nine defeats in 12 games, Liverpool are now unbeaten in four and appear to have come through the worst of their slump. The challenge is to build on this, rather than treat it as an isolated high point.
Slot, Salah and a delicate power balance
Even on such a positive night, Salah inevitably remained a central topic. The aftermath of his explosive interview and subsequent omission from the travelling squad continues to dominate the wider conversation.
Former Dutch international Clarence Seedorf suggested to Slot that players can “make mistakes”, a point the Liverpool manager did not dispute but framed carefully.
“Everyone makes mistakes in life but does the player know he’s made a mistake? Should the initiative come from him or from me? That’s another question,” Slot said, hinting that he expects some form of reflection or response from Salah before the situation can move forward.
Van Dijk, for his part, refused to be drawn into directly criticising his team-mate. “There is no point me saying if someone has let someone down,” he said. “He didn’t travel based on the consequences of what he said. That’s it.
“He trained yesterday perfectly normal. Let’s see when we come back on Friday and see what the situation will be like. My focus is on the team and at this point Mo is still part of the team. We will see what happens.”
For now, this was an evening where the narrative shifted away from the absent star and towards those who actually stepped onto the pitch.
Szoboszlai steps up as Liverpool’s leader
If anyone embodied that shift, it was Szoboszlai. The midfielder, who has now been directly involved in more goals than any other Liverpool player this season (five goals and five assists), shouldered the pressure at the decisive moment and delivered.
“I have asked a lot of him,” Slot admitted. “I think what is also special is how much he runs – he is one of the few that played all four games in 10 days.
“It’s special what he is doing physically and also football-wise, he stood up in a difficult moment. That was his first penalty for Liverpool during a game but he has a great shot and he delivered.”
Winning in Milan is never straightforward, especially given Inter had been unbeaten in 18 consecutive home Champions League matches. That context only added weight to Slot’s words after the final whistle.
“It should be about what we’ve done over here,” he said. “I fully understand that on Friday, in the press conference, all the questions will be about Mo.
“Tonight it should be all about a team, against a team like this who are winning at a stadium like this. The focus should be on that.
“Tonight it should be all about the players that are here. In the rich history Liverpool has had, they have had many of these evenings.”
If proof was needed that Liverpool can still grind out big European results without Salah, this was it. Whatever happens next in the power play between star forward and head coach, the club has shown it will keep moving forward – with or without him.
