Liverpool brushed off the absence of Mohamed Salah with a 1-0 Champions League victory over Inter Milan in San Siro on Tuesday.
With their regular penalty-taker left at home after his extraordinary outburst against head coach Arne Slot and the club after Saturday's draw at Leeds it was left to Dominik Szoboszlai to step up and convert an 88th-minute spot-kick.
That may point to the future in one aspect but the manner of the victory, which moved Liverpool back into the top eight with an improved chance of avoiding the play-offs, offered the first signs of resilience of an otherwise brittle season.
Current form meant Salah's presence in Italy may not have been the essential ingredient it had so often been but this represented progress against a team which had won seven of their last nine and was on an 18-match unbeaten home run in Europe.
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