Five added minutes had just flashed up on the scoreboard when Jurgen Klopp wearily turned his back on the action and trudged solemnly to his seat.
He had seen enough. Liverpool’s manager had spent most of the game with arms stretched out like a scarecrow, screeching his fury, but it had been pointless. Klopp’s team had been wretched and nothing he could do would save them in this cavernous furnace.
As he sat down, his thoughts would have started to turn instead to how he can prevent Liverpool from being eliminated from the competition that means so much to them; another false move in their final games against PSG and Napoli and they will be out.
Red Star Belgrade took the lead and looked pumped up after breaking the deadlock through Milan Pavkov (left)
Andrew Roberton’s face summed up the feeling among Liverpool players after the visitors conceded in Serbia
The home fans were sent into raptures and the Red Star team celebrated in fine style after Pavkov’s effort
Virgil van Dijk looked unusually shaky at the back and covered his head with his shirt after the Reds conceded
That is the stark reality following an abysmal 90 minutes in Belgrade, a match which ended with the superb Red Star team recording their most famous win at this level – thanks to two terrific, unanswered Milan Pavkov goals – since they lifted the European Cup in 1991.
Perhaps, deep down, Liverpool thought it was going to be a formality. Klopp would never entertain that suggestion if it was made to him, while the players themselves would deny it but this was a performance that invited such stinging criticism.
There is no doubt the contest would have been different had Daniel Sturridge – whose last start was at Huddersfield on October 20 – snaffled the kind of opportunity you would expect him to convert with his eyes closed in the 17th minute.
It was at the end of the one Liverpool move that had any kind of fluency before the break. The ball went down the left flank, from Adam Lallana to Sadio Mane and the Senegal forward’s cross squirted its way past Andy Robertson to Sturridge. His shot was horrible, missing by clear daylight.
Pavkov towered above the Liverpool defenders and powered his header beyond Alisson into the bottom corner
Alisson stood rooted to the spot and watched as the ball nestled into the corner and his side fell behind in the game
The Red Star Belgrade fans provided plenty of noise and created a hugely hostile atmosphere for Jurgen Klopp’s men
Klopp was startled by the miss he did a double take while Sturridge was so aghast he clamped his hands over his eyes. There was no point trying to shut it out; the constant head shaking showed he was already replaying it in his mind.
How costly it proved. Red Star – whose supporters provided a relentless din of noisy encouragement and intimidation – saw a chance to get a foothold in the contest and, with more than a little help from last season’s finalists, they took it.
The first goal arrived following a mistake by Virgil Van Dijk, usually such a figure of calm and poise. He fluffed a clearance to Ben Nabouhane, whose shot from 20 yards was turned away by Alisson Becker. From Marko Marin’s resulting corner, Pavkov plundered the first of his two goals.
Such was the delirium at going a goal in front, some of Red Star’s backroom staff ran down the touchline and ended up in Klopp’s technical area but any anger he felt was aimed at the direction of his statuesque defence.
If that was bad, worse was to follow. Liverpool’s midfield was getting overrun but the feeble way in which Gini Wijnaldum was brushed aside after James Milner had squandered possession deserved punishment and Pavkov duly obliged.
Pavkov was given the chance in the team by his manager and took full advantage by scoring a first half brace
The striker’s second goal of the game came from just outside the box as he smashed a drive beyond the goalkeeper
Spirits soared among the Red Star players as they put Liverpool’s qualification to the knockout stages in doubt
Alisson could have done better for the second goal and managed to get fingertips to the powerful strike
Daniel Sturridge was crowded out at every opportunity by a swarm of Red Star defenders before he was replaced
Trent Alexander-Arnold goes airborne as he competes with Milan Rodic in a full-blooded challenge at Rajko Mitic Stadium
With Wijnaldum frantically trying to get back into position, Pavkov simply held out his arm to fend off the Holland international and then crashed a shot that ended up resting in Alisson’s net before he had even finished his dive.
There is not much elegance about Pavkov, who is a big slab of a centre forward, but what he lacks in grace is made up for in power and what proved to be the decisive goal was in from the moment it left his boot. The celebrations, in keeping with the night, were suitably manic.
Liverpool had not come from two goals behind in a European game since April 2016, when they defied logic to beat Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League quarter-final, but there was not even a sliver of hope of them repeating the feat here.
Klopp was apoplectic on the sidelines and seemed confused at time at what he was witnessing from his side
Salah looked downcast after he hit the bar and failed to haul Liverpool back into the game against resilient defence
Joel Matip came into the team after Dejan Lovren stayed at the team hotel due to illness preventing him playing
The crowd delivered a huge amount of noise throughout the game even with Red Star on the back foot
Milan Borjan instructs his side to calm down and keep their composure in the face of a Liverpool spell of pressurE
Don’t be kidded by the fact they dominated possession in the second period and spent the last 15 minutes launching balls into Van Dijk, who effectively became a fifth striker at times. Red Star were never at their wit’s end, remaining disciplined and tenacious.
To give you an idea of how bad it was for Liverpool, a snapshot arrived when the out-of-sorts Mane somehow passed the ball straight out of play, rather than down the touchline, while barely two yards from Klopp.
In terms of coming close to scoring, the best Liverpool could do was a cross from Robertson (56 minutes) that looped off a defender onto the crossbar and a shot from Salah (71 minutes) that thudded off the outside of the post following a corner.
The manner in which heads dropped at that point was telling and Liverpool have now matched a feat not seen since 1979 in losing three consecutive games away from in Europe. Should that sequence move to four in Paris three weeks from now, the ramifications will be obvious.
Liverpool’s history might be made up of countless tales of escapology but if they play like this, they won’t be saved. Klopp will know that better than anyone.
Liverpool’s progression in the Champions League hangs in the balance after the unexpected defeat in Serbia
The home side played superbly and stuck to their game plan in thwarting Liverpool in the second half