Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool beat Napoli, advance to round of 16

Liverpool 1 - 0 Napoli
(Salah 34')

Liverpool entered Tuesday evening's action needing things to go their way in order to be one of the two teams from Group C to reach the Champions League last-16 and avoid to dropping down to the Europa League for the knockout stages. As it happened, things did go their way. 

First, Jürgen Klopp's side needed to beat Napoli without conceding a goal - had they conceded at home at Anfield, they could still have advanced, but it would have become more difficult, as they would have needed to win by two goals or more. 

In the end, they opted for the former, as Mohamed Salah's first-half strike would be all Liverpool would need to qualify for the last-16, while sending Carlo Ancelotti's men crashing out of European football's richest club competition. 

The Reds clearly controlled this contest from start to end, and would have had at least a couple of more goals had Sadio Mané not been extremely wasteful with a series of golden opportunities to add to Liverpool's lead.  

Napoli also created a number of decent chances to score, but either failed to hit the target or couldn't beat Alisson in the Liverpool goal. The Italian side's best opportunity came in stoppage time, when Arkadiusz Milik took control of the ball at close range and fired a hard shot that Alisson somehow managed to stop. The save of the night, perhaps even the play of the game, maintained his clean sheet and kept Liverpool in the Champions League come next year. 

Relive the action as it happened below: 

Fulltime - Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool advance to the knockout stage, second in Group C behind PSG, who won 4-1 in Belgrade this Tuesday evening. Napoli drop into the Europa League

90+4 - Mané goes through on his own and misses yet again. How did he miss that?

90+2 - Napoli get the perfect opportunity to draw level. Milik brings the ball under control and fires from close range but Alisson makes an amazing reflex save to keep his sheet clean and Liverpool ahead.

90'+1 - The fourth official holds up his board - it has a 4 on it. 

90' - Alexander-Arnold's workday is done, on comes Lovren for a few minutes.

87' - How many chances does Mané need? Salah barged down the right wing and squared it to Mané all alone close to the penalty spot - but he fired it high and wide.

84' - Now Jürgen Klopp makes a move, bringing off James Milner, who comes off to a nice round of applause. He is replaced by Fabinho.

79' - Now a big chance at the other end. Insigne plays a beautiful ball in behind the Liverpool defense, Callejon has a sitter - but he skies it!

77' - Another huge opportunity for the home side. Milner plays a square ball into the box. Mané fires it straight at Ospina. He should have made more of that!

74' - Huge opportunity for Salah! he takes a through ball in the area, tries to walk around Ospina, who just gets a hand to it. The ball falls for Salah at a bad angle, Ospina just reaches it to cleared it off the line. 

73' - Napoli have looked a bit brighter since the last two subs, but so far they can't cash in.

70' - Carlo Ancelotti uses his third sub, bringing on Ghoulam for Rui. 

67' - Substitution for Napoli: Mertens comes off, he's replaced by Milik.

65' - Free kick for Liverpool after Maksimovic bundled down Mané. But it gets bogged down in the traffic in the Napoli area.

61'-  A decent effort from Henderson from just outside of the Napoli area, forcing Ospina to dive and stretch. Then Milner goes for it from just inside the area, but he fires it wide.

56' - Liverpool have been very much in the driver's seat for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, but now Napoli have a corner. Hysaj gets his effort on target, but it's right at Alisson. Liverpool go down the other end and Salah puts a shot right at Ospina.

50' - Napoli cough up the ball deep in their half, it leads to a decent chance for Salah, but he puts it inches outside of Ospina's left post.

48' - Salah wins the ball outside of the Napoli area, floats a nice ball in, but Wijnaldum wastes it, hitting it first time with the outside of his boot and putting it way off target. Much more could have been made of that. 

47' - Corner for Liverpool. And another one. Ospina rises to pull the second one in. 

46' - And the second half is underway. Can Napoli come back at Anfield?

45'+3 - Mr. Skomina blows his whistle and the two teams go off for their tea break. Liverpool looked much the stronger side, particularly in the last 20 minutes or so. 

45'+2 - Mertens almost breaks into the Liverpool area, but he pushed the ball to far in front of him and Van Dijk can clear.

45' - The fourth official indicates that there are to be at least 3 minutes of time added on.

40' - Yellow card for Koulibaly for a late challenge on Salah. Free kick for Liverpool - but it achieves nothing.

That goal changes everything in Group C! Now PSG and Liverpool would be through, Napoli on the outside looking in.

34' - Goal for Liverpool! Beautiful goal by Salah. He won the ball on a long pass into the right side of the box, beat Koulibaly with a shoulder drop and put it through Ospina's legs from a very bad angle indeed!

32' - Liverpool with a promising attack but Robertson's cross isn't a particularly good one and Ospina has no trouble gathering it in. 

25' - Koulibaly gets free out on the left in Alisson's area but he pulls it wde. He was offside anyway.

22' -  The ball is in the Napoli net but Mané, who tapped it in, was clearly offside.

In the meantime PSG have gone up 1-0 in Belgrade. As things stand, PSG and Napoli would be through, Liverpool would be on their way to the Europa League.

17' Free kick for Liverpool out on the right wing, taken by Van Dijk, but it comes to nothing.

12' Van Dijk gets the first yellow card of the match for a sliding tackle on Mertens. This means he misses the first knockout-stage match. The Liverpool defender got the fall first but followed through into Mertens' lower leg. Mertens requires treatment.

11' - Salah barges down the right side looking to cut into the Napoli area but he loses the battle to Kalidou Koulibaly. Well defended!

9' - James Milner gets a chance for Liverpool, but his header goes over Ospina's cage. 

9' - Hamsik fires it over the Liverpool goal.

8' - Liverpool with a beautiful opportunity as Salah gets in all his own, but he fails to control the ball. Chance to go ahead wasted!

7' - Nice ball into the Liverpool area but Van Dijk can clear.

3' - Almost the first good chance for Napoli, but the final pass wasn't good enough. 

1' - James Milner kicks off for Liverpool and we are underway in this final Group C match. 

20:59 - Referee Damir Skomina of Slovenia leads the two teams out onto the pitch at Anfield.

20:50 CET - With just minutes to go before the two teams take the pitch at Anfield, Schalke have beaten Lokomotiv Moscow 1-0 at the Veltins Arena, with Alessandro Schöpf scoring the only goal in injury time. Schalke are through to the knockout stage, having finished second in Group D.

19:45 CET - The lineups are out: 

Early on in this Champions League campaign, many German fans in particular were focused on the storyline of the two former Dortmund and Mainz coaches, Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, now coaching Liverpool and Paris St.-Germain respectively. Both of their Champions League fates have come down to the sixth and final matchday in Group C, with only two of three teams, Napoli, PSG and Liverpool, able to advance.

Read more: Champions League: Klopp and Tuchel battle for knockout progression

Here we will focus on the Liverpool - Napoli match, along with updates from Belgrade, where PSG will be facing Red Star.