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.



Sinner, Djokovic in Opposite Halves at Australian Open, Sabalenka vs Stephens in 1st Round

09 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka (L) and Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner pose with Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup during the draw for the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament, at Melbourne Park, Melbourne. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
09 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka (L) and Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner pose with Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup during the draw for the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament, at Melbourne Park, Melbourne. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
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Sinner, Djokovic in Opposite Halves at Australian Open, Sabalenka vs Stephens in 1st Round

09 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka (L) and Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner pose with Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup during the draw for the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament, at Melbourne Park, Melbourne. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa
09 January 2025, Australia, Melbourne: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka (L) and Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner pose with Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup during the draw for the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament, at Melbourne Park, Melbourne. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP/dpa

Defending champion Jannik Sinner and 10-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic have landed in opposite sides of the draw for the season’s first major, ruling out a replay of last year’s semifinal match.
Sinner upset Djokovic in the semifinals at the Australian Open last year before coming back to beat Daniil Medvedev in the final 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 for his first Grand Slam singles title.
Top-ranked Sinner has a first-round match against Nicolas Jarry and also has Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Medvedev in his quarter of the draw. Fritz will open against fellow American Jenson Brooksby.
Djokovic and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz could meet in the quarterfinals, with a possible semifinal against No. 2 Alexander Zverev.
At the draw Thursday to set the brackets for the singles fields, defending champions Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka walked into the official ceremony holding thei trophies.
Sabalenka won her second consecutive title at Melbourne Park in 2024 by defeating Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Sabalenka will be attempting to win a third consecutive women’s singles title at Melbourne Park, something last accomplished by Martina Hingis from 1997 to 1999.
Sabalenka drew a tough opening match against 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens and has 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva and Zheng in her section.
“I have a lot of great memories and to be back here ... as a two-time Australian Open champion, it’s definitely something special,” Sabalenka, who won the Brisbane International title last week, said at the draw ceremony. “I hope that I can keep doing what I’m doing here in Australia.”
Third-seeded Coco Gauff is a potential semifinal rival for Sabalenka. Gauff has a challenging first-round match against former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and is in the same section of the draw as seventh-seeded Jessica Pegula.
The Australian Open starts Sunday morning in Melbourne (Saturday night EST) and will run for 15 days.
Djokovic will be playing in his first event alongside new coach Andy Murray, his former on-court rival and a three-time major champion. Nobody has won the men's title at Melbourne Park more often than Djokovic, although he said he still feels trauma from the one year he wasn’t allowed to play.
Nick Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up who withdrew from an exhibition against Djokovic this week because of an abdominal strain, will face Jacob Fearnley in the first round if the mercurial Australian is fit enough to contest his first major since the 2022 US Open. Kyrgios is in the same section as Zverev.