Jürgen Klopp did his best to keep his players focused on the matter in hand, describing this game as the most important one of the season and appealing to the crowd for fervent support, though a rugged and resolute Stoke were the last opponents Liverpool needed to meet between the two legs of their Champions League semi-final.

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There was no goal for Mohamed Salah, who will now have only two more chances to set a Premier League scoring record, and no confidence boost from temporarily climbing above Manchester United to second in the table. Defeat at Chelsea next Sunday could likely leave a top-four finish hanging on the final day’s home game with Brighton.

Liverpool wanted more than a point from this fixture but so too did Stoke, who need wins to get out of trouble. Paul Lambert’s side put in a solid performance to frustrate Liverpool but it is possibly too little and too late. Stoke have not won a league match at Anfield since 1959 and, though this draw preserves Lambert’s record of never losing here in six visits as a manager, he may have to wait a while for his next opportunity unless other results go his way.

“We were outstanding. I couldn’t ask the players for anything more,” the Stoke manager said. “Liverpool have been scoring for fun and we stopped them. They didn’t create that many chances.”

Klopp did not make a huge fuss about the Erik Pieters handball that could have earned Liverpool a late penalty or about the occasionally over-physical way in which the full-back stuck close to Salah.

“Football is a physical game and Mo is probably the most attacked player in the Premier League but all the lads are used to that,” the Liverpool manager said, before confirming Sadio Mané would be back for Roma on Wednesday and that Salah and Jordan Henderson should overcome minor knocks. “We didn’t score, so it’s not the best day of my life but for sure I’ve had worse days.”

The visitors must have had an inkling their luck was in when Salah passed up a glorious chance after five minutes and with it the possibility of settling home nerves and forcing the opposition to chase the game. Early plans to limit the space available for the Egyptian to run into evaporated as Salah broke from halfway into an empty half but, having carried the ball into the area and put himself in a one-on-one situation with Jack Butland, he chipped the goalkeeper and uncharacteristically missed the target.

Thus reprieved, Stoke went on to create a few chances of their own in a first half which saw Liverpool do most of the attacking without quite making the final pass count. Mame Biram Diouf headed into the side-netting after a Joe Gomez slip gave Moritz Bauer the opportunity to cross and, when Xherdan Shaqiri rolled the ball across an unguarded Liverpool goalline a few minutes later, neither Peter Crouch nor Badou Ndiaye could stretch far enough to gain the necessary touch.

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Georginio Wijnaldum came closest to breaking the first-half deadlock when shooting narrowly wide from a Roberto Firmino lay-off, though Salah might have made something from an unforced Butland error had he not been unceremoniously barged over on the edge of the area by Pieters. He took the free-kick himself but was unable to trouble Butland again and, when Danny Ings put the ball in the net from a narrow angle on the stroke of half-time, he was correctly flagged offside.

After watching 20 stodgy second-half minutes of Liverpool struggling to break down Stoke, Klopp sent on James Milner and Nathaniel Clyne to try to inject a little more urgency.

Clyne was presented with a decent opening almost immediately, only to head tamely into Butland’s arms, before Milner set up Alberto Moreno for a shot that flew wide but still amounted to Liverpool’s best attempt since turning round. The afternoon did not get any better for those in red, though at least they were spared the ignominy of following the midweek Roma 5-2 spectacular with a home defeat when Ryan Shawcross was unable to turn the ball in at the far post after excellent work from Diouf.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Erik Pieters pulls his arm away after being struck by Georginio Wijnaldum’s cross. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

A minute before that Pieters had been extremely lucky not to concede a penalty when Wijnaldum’s cross struck an arm. He might have been trying to pull it away but there was definite contact. Liverpool protested in vain, though to an extent they would have been flattered had the game been won by such means. This was not the unstoppable attacking machine that blew away Roma and Manchester City. This was Liverpool on economy setting.