Before passing the Anfield torch over to Slot, Jurgen Klopp succeeded in his quest to bring Champions League football back to the Liverpool faithful, albeit with a third-placed Premier League finish rather than the Europa League crown that many foresaw at the start of the season.

Between now and the end of January, the six-time European champions will engage in a handful of blockbuster ties in the new-look league phase; Anfield showdowns against reigning champions Real Madrid and Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen are particular highlights.

Bologna, RB Leipzig, Girona, Lille and PSV Eindhoven will also endeavour to prevent Liverpool sailing through to the last 16 as one of the top eight teams in the 36-club league phase, where the sides ranked ninth to 24th will have a playoff safety net, while outfits finishing 25th to 36th will crash out of Europe altogether.

The Reds make the trek to San Siro with four wins under their belt from their last five away games versus Italian clubs in European competition, but they were memorably sent packing by Atalanta BC in last year's Europa League quarters and were a shadow of their usual selves at the weekend.

After winning each of their first three Premier League games of the season without conceding a single goal, Liverpool slumped to a humbling 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest courtesy of an exquisite Callum Hudson-Odoi strike, as the former Chelsea wonderkid punished Liverpool's alarming profligacy in front of goal.



译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

在把安菲尔德的火炬交给斯洛特之前，尤尔根·克洛普成功地将冠军联赛带回了利物浦，尽管他只获得了英超第三的成绩，而不是本赛季初许多人预测的欧联杯冠军。

从现在到一月底，这支六次欧洲冠军得主将在新赛季的联赛阶段进行几场重磅比赛;安菲尔德对阵卫冕冠军皇家马德里和哈维·阿隆索的勒沃库森是特别的亮点。

博洛尼亚、RB莱比锡、赫罗纳、里尔和埃因霍温也将努力阻止利物浦在36家俱乐部的联赛阶段进入16强，成为前8名之一。在这个阶段，排名第9至24位的球队将有一个季后赛安全网，而排名第25至36位的球队将完全被淘汰出欧洲。

红军在过去的五场客场对阵意大利俱乐部的比赛中取得了四场胜利，跋涉到圣西罗，但令人难忘的是，他们在去年的欧联杯四分之一中被亚特兰大BC淘汰出局，在周末的比赛中，他们表现得像往常一样。

在本赛季的前三场英超比赛中，利物浦在一球未失的情况下取得了胜利，但由于前切尔西神童卡勒姆·哈德森-奥多伊(Callum Hudson-Odoi)的一记精妙的进球，利物浦以0 - 1惨败于诺丁汉森林，这位前切尔西神童在门前惩罚了利物浦令人震惊的挥霍。