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Steady Amid Another Anfield Storm, Liverpool Advances in Champions League

Mohamed Salah scored the goal Liverpool needed, the goal that delivered its 1-0 win over Napoli on Tuesday. Jon Super/Reuters

LIVERPOOL, England — Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp had said, needed Anfield. It needed to find fuel in the floodlit memories that swirl around this stadium. It needed its fans to turn the visit of Napoli into another of those nights that burnishes this place’s legend: another St.-Étienne, another Borussia Dortmund and, most of all, another Olympiakos.

The parallel, after all, was clear, obvious. The situation was exactly as it had been when the Greek champions traveled here in 2004: Liverpool had to beat Napoli by 1-0, or otherwise by two goals or more, to qualify, to avoid the indignity of elimination at the Champions League’s group stage.