A PENNY for the thoughts of Mo Salah after Dominik Szoboszlai rammed home the penalty two minutes from time that eased boss Arne Slot’s agonies.
Maybe even make it all of that £400,000 weekly wage he earns now as the sulking superstar who says Liverpool have thrown him under the bus and that somebody is out to get him.
Was he happy that while he was left behind by Slot following his nuclear outburst against just about everything Anfield, the chances of automatic qualification to the Champions League last 16 are now very much alive again?
Or was there just bitterness that even in a stadium that remains one of the most daunting in Europe – Inter had been unbeaten in their previous 18 European games at San Siro – Slot’s struggling side still came away with a precious three points while he was home alone?
We will probably never know, for the 33-year-old apparently only ever speaks publicly when he thinks his comments will serve his own ends.
It’s possible that he didn’t bother to flick on his telly and tune in.
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But he did post a picture of himself alone in the club’s gym around a dozen hours before kick-off, an image that many will have seen as the snap of an attention-seeker still seemingly only interested in himself.
Just not in the trials and tribulations of team-mates who this season have so badly missed the old, happy Salah, the one who has 250 goals as Liverpool’s all-time third-highest scorer.
The one who over eight seasons across England and the continent just grabbed the attention of defenders and not the one that through his own selfishness has now thrown his own reputation as Anfield’s Egyptian king under a bus.
Yet Slot’s side proved that there can be life without him, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike starting only their second game together.
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Theirs was very much a getting-to-know-you process but there were still encouraging moments from the pair who in the summer were envisaged as the £199m strike pair to lead the club to new heights.
It all looked so much brighter than the gloom that had become even more following the 3-3 draw against Leeds United and Salah’s explosive rant.
For after all the noise he created there was a calmness about those who were there to take on a side that had won 14 of their last 17 games this season and are third in Serie A.
The only fright for them in the opening stages was a fierce tackle by Lautaro Martinez that had Andy Robertson screaming in agony while the Inter captain was booked.
Control for Slot’s side was clearly everything but they built a base from which to go forward with confidence, Yann Sommer forced into a smart save from Curtis Jones.
Seconds later the goalkeeper was also dealing with Ryan Gravenberch’s less-worrying attempt.
Ekitike then broke down the right flank, Sommer parrying a tightly angled shot.
Liverpool’s opponents couldn’t exert any pressure and they weren’t helped by injury – losing centre back Francesco Acerbi and Hakan Calhanoglu by the 31st minute.
Sixty seconds after the midfielder had departed Ibrahima Konate thought he’d given Liverpool a deserved lead, heading home after Virgil van Dijk and Ekitike jumped to meet a corner.
But after a wait over what became an interminable four minutes-plus as VAR checked for handball on the striker – he knew nothing about any connection on his arm – and then a TV viewing by referee Felix Zwayer, the effort was disallowed.
It was the harshest of decisions – Ekitike’s action was anything but deliberate – but it was a moment that summed up so much of how badly things have either gone for Liverpool or how much they have run out of luck.
It also lifted the home side, suddenly flooding forward and it was all hands to the pump in front of Alisson.
But unlike on so many occasions in a season that has turned into crisis and controversy the rearguard held firm until the break, albeit thanks to a desperate stop by the keeper after Martinez got in front of Van Dijk to deliver a flying header.
Patience had been the watchword before Alisson’s first real save of the game and it stayed that way – a look a long way back in time to when Liverpool always played grudgingly during the late Bob Paisley’s days of three European Cup triumphs.
Inter, in the end, also suffered a serious sense of injustice after Florian Wirtz went down in a clash with Alessandro Bastoni.
A penalty check then another look at the screen by referee Zwayer followed and this time fortune did go Liverpool’s way even if the £100m man fell under what was the lightest of shirt tugs.
Boss Slot and his team couldn’t have cared less at that moment and Szoboszlai, the best player on the pitch, didn’t lose his nerve – giving Liverpool not only a victory but also a clean sheet.
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