The match had however almost started on a good basis with a goal from Kai Havertz, on a corner, but it was canceled after consultation with the VAR, for offside.
This first scare did not encourage Liverpool — where Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Jordan Henderson or Darwin Nunez were on the bench at kick-off, while the young Stefan Bajcetic, 18, started in the middle — , to take risks.
Chelsea showed themselves to be a little more enterprising, but hardly sharp, and apart from a header from Benoït Badiashile at the far post, repelled without too much difficulty by Alisson (32nd), the first period was worthy of a mid-table match .
Despite a little more aggressiveness on returning from the locker room, the Reds remained harmless.
A strike from Cody Gakpo in pivot (69th), another from Nunez in a tight angle (76th), hardly woke up an Anfield as apathetic as his team.
Graham Potter, for his part, offered his first minutes of play to Mykhailo Mudryk from the 55th minute.
The Ukrainian nugget to 100 million euros offered a small slalom in the opposing defense, punctuated by a and strikes at the corner of the six meters in the small net (64th), before missing his control after being found, alone, at the far post by Hakim Ziyech 71st).
But 0-0 is a perfectly logical score given the performance of the two teams as if paralyzed by the fear of individual errors and neither of them seems capable of showing themselves conquerors again in the short term.
