Anfield had waited over a year and a half for the return of Uefa’s top competition and Liverpool’s first home game in the Champions League since the end of February 2023 didn’t disappoint the home support. If not the raucous, fiery atmosphere that the knockout stages of this competition can generate at this ground, there was still plenty of expectation and noise on a night when Arne Slot once again experienced the good of his team going forward, and the lax nature they’ve displayed recently at the back. This was a game which certainly provided plenty of both.
For Slot, it was a minor moment of club history: an eighth win from his first nine in charge, the first manager to do so. That, and a first clean sheet in three matches were both welcome statistics - particularly as Liverpool themselves seemed to do their best to ensure Alisson Becker would be forced to pick the ball out of the net at least once. But almost 600 days after conceding five times to the champions of Europe, Liverpool eventually produced a shut-out which hinted at why they might feel they can go on to claim that crown themselves this year.
Half of the team has changed since the Reds’ last home Champions League game - the thrilling, yet ultimately devastating, 5-2 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid. Six starters from that day under Jurgen Klopp did so here under Slot, but the most noticeable alteration was all three midfielders being changed - and, for the most part, performing in excellent fashion a.