Liverpool ‘Calm’ Despite Scoring Struggle in Draw with Luton, Says Klopp 

Football - Premier League - Luton Town v Liverpool - Kenilworth Road, Luton, Britain - November 5, 2023 Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp with Darwin Nunez and Alexis Mac Allister after the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Luton Town v Liverpool - Kenilworth Road, Luton, Britain - November 5, 2023 Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp with Darwin Nunez and Alexis Mac Allister after the match. (Reuters)
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Liverpool ‘Calm’ Despite Scoring Struggle in Draw with Luton, Says Klopp 

Football - Premier League - Luton Town v Liverpool - Kenilworth Road, Luton, Britain - November 5, 2023 Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp with Darwin Nunez and Alexis Mac Allister after the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Luton Town v Liverpool - Kenilworth Road, Luton, Britain - November 5, 2023 Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp with Darwin Nunez and Alexis Mac Allister after the match. (Reuters)

Liverpool will not hit the panic button despite their forwards being in far from their best goalscoring form against lowly Luton Town, manager Juergen Klopp said after his team were held to a 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Sunday.

Colombian winger Luis Diaz came off the bench to rescue the Merseyside outfit, scoring an emotional 95th-minute equalizer at Kenilworth Road and dedicating it to his kidnapped father.

Liverpool dominated possession and could have won had it not been for a string of missed chances by Darwin Nunez. But the German coach looked at the positives the Uruguayan striker showed.

"The first chance he had was really well done, great pass, first touch top and then he nails it on the crossbar," Klopp told reporters.

"The whole team was not in a goalscoring mood today, obviously, and that's then not helpful. But Darwin, what makes him really different is that he's involved in pretty much everything, so that's good. We are calm.

"Even when we should have finished better, but I don't think our problem was really finishing. It was other things.

"We should have created more and then we would have finished one or two situations off, and I would have been completely fine with winning here 1-0, I would've been very, very happy. But for that we should have played better."

The result left Liverpool third on 24 points, three behind leaders Manchester City, while Luton inched out of the relegation zone to go 17th on six points, two off the bottom.

Liverpool next travel to Ligue 1 club Toulouse in the Europa League on Thursday before hosting ninth-placed Brentford in the top-flight on Sunday.



Milan Come from Behind to Beat Juventus 2-1 in Super Cup Semi-final

Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
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Milan Come from Behind to Beat Juventus 2-1 in Super Cup Semi-final

Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
Soccer Football - Italian Super Cup - Semi Final - Juventus v AC Milan - Al Awwal Park, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 3, 2025 AC Milan's Christian Pulisic scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini

AC Milan reached the Italian Super Cup final after coming from behind to beat Juventus 2-1 on Friday in Sergio Conceicao's first game in charge, setting up a derby decider with Inter Milan.

A second-half penalty from Christian Pulisic and an own goal by Federico Gatti completed Milan's comeback after Kenan Yildiz had fired Juve into a 21st-minute lead.

Milan will play Inter in Monday's final, after the Serie A champions overcame Atalanta 2-0 in their semi-final meeting on Thursday, where Conceicao could immediately get his hands on a trophy after replacing the sacked Paulo Fonseca as Milan manager on Monday.

The expected intrigue of a father against son battle failed to materialise, after Juventus winger Francisco Conceicao was named in the starting 11 but was withdrawn after picking up an injury in the warm-up, according to Reuters.

Conceicao's place was taken by Yildiz, and after a slow, cagey start to the game, it was the Turkish forward who broke the deadlock.

A through pass from Samuel Mbangula caught the Milan defence off guard and found Yildiz who took the ball into the area before smashing his shot into the roof of the net, beating Milan keeper Mike Maignan at his near post.

The second half began with another Yildiz effort going just wide in the opening seconds, and shortly afterwards, he played a low pass across the area but Dusan Vlahovic sent his effort wide.

Milan had a massive chance to equalise from a corner kick when the ball fell to Theo Hernandez, but he somehow managed to send a shot over the bar from close range.

The game at last opened up and Nicolo Savona's foul on Hernandez gave Milan a penalty kick in the 71st minute which Pulisic sent straight down the middle to beat Michele Di Gregorio.

Milan went ahead four minutes later, through an own goal. Yunus Musah's cross took a wicked deflection off Juve defender Gatti which took the ball past Di Gregorio who had come off his line.

"For our second-half performance, we deserved the final. In the first half I saw a Milan with many doubts, like a few weeks ago," Conceicao told SportMediaset.

"Then we spoke at halftime. We had to understand what we had to do to win and they were really brave."

Deep into added time, Juventus had one last chance to send the game to penalties, but Gatti's volleyed effort from close range went just wide.

The Milan manager embraced his son after the game before celebrating with his players, and Conceicao will now aim to stop Inter from winning their fourth consecutive Super Cup trophy.

"The second half was completely different, but we haven't done anything yet," Conceicao said.

"We have one less day of rest and this is an important factor."