PSV 3-2 Liverpool: Amara Nallo sent off on debut as Reds lose 100% Champions League record | OneFootball

Reds still finish top of League phase as understrength side beaten

Cody Gakpo scored on his return to PSV Eindhoven but it was not enough to inspire an understrength Liverpool side as they lost their 100 percent Champions League record after a 3-2 defeat.

When he tucked home a 28th-minute penalty it appeared he had returned to haunt his boyhood club, where he spent five seasons before a move to Anfield two years ago.

But PSV exposed their opponents' obvious weaknesses and, although Harvey Elliott scored for the second successive Champions League game, goals for Johan Bakayoko, Ismael Saibari and Ricardo Pepi inflicted Liverpool's third defeat of the season and their 100th in European football.

Liverpool youngster Amara Nallo was sent off late on, just over three minutes into his debut.

With Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz all watching from home, Slot had limited experience to call on.

He could have done without Darwin Nunez withdrawing through illness, meaning Jayden Danns was handed his first start and Champions League debut at the age of 19 years and 13 days, the club's youngest starter in the competition.

The 20-year-old James McConnell started in midfield while the 22-year-old Tyler Morton was by far the most experienced player on the bench, which included six academy outfield players.

But it was not just the youngsters who benefited from the lack of first-teamers, with Federico Chiesa making his first start since September due to fitness issues.

The summer signing from Juventus had recently enjoyed an encouraging 45-minute cameo in the FA Cup but Slot had suggested he needed to do it against better opposition than Accrington.

The Eredivisie champions and current leaders fitted that criteria and the Italy international responded to the challenge, winning the penalty for Gakpo's goal after being brought down by Joey Veerman's attempted clearance.

Elliott put the loose ball in the net but referee Tobias Stiele had already blown his whistle. Gakpo sent Walter Benitez the wrong way but did not celebrate his sixth goal in the last eight games.

Veerman made up for that error with a contribution for the equaliser; his ball up to Pepi was chested down to Bakayoko who sent Jarell Quansah and Andy Robertson, playing as centre-back, sliding one way before cutting back onto his right foot to fire home the equaliser.

Five minutes later Elliott converted the rebound after Chiesa's shot was parried by Benitez.

Nallo was sent off just three minutes into his Liverpool debut

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But Eindhoven are the Eredivisie's great entertainers, having won the league with a plus-90 goal difference last season and racked up 95 goals already this campaign, and Saibari equalised again by rifling a near-post shot into the roof of the net after Wataru Endo lost possession midway inside his own half.

In the fourth minute of added time, Mauro Junior's cross took deflections of Conor Bradley and Pepi before creeping inside the far post for the goal which secured the Dutch side's first win over Liverpool.

With the lack of resources available, the second half seemed like damage-limitation and Gakpo and Robertson were both withdrawn within 20 minutes and it took a last-ditch challenge by Morton to deny Saibari.

There was heartbreak at the end for 18-year-old Nallo, whose debut off the bench lasted just over three minutes before he was sent off for bringing down Bakayoko.