Liverpool have marked their return to the new-look UEFA Champions League in style, with Arne Slot’s side the only team to win their first five matches in the tournament this season.
With the traditional format of multiple four-team groups making way for a single 36-club table this year, Europe’s top sides were venturing into the unknown as they prepared to navigate the divisive Swiss model.
However, the first few matchweeks in the competition have thrown up plenty of surprises, with clubs who were previously eaten alive in the group stage now making the most of having a far better chance of advancing to the next round.
After five of the eight league phase gameweeks, only Liverpool have guaranteed that they’ll be in the knockout rounds in 2025, and it looks all but certain that they’ll advance straight to the round of 16 as one of the top eight finishers, thus avoiding the inconvenience of a play-off round in February.
In fact, Reds fans might be feeling so buoyant about their team’s hopes this season that perhaps they’re already looking into how to buy 2025 Champions League Final tickets!
There’s a long road to travel before we can start dreaming of being in Munich on 31 May, but Slot’s team have earned the status as favourites for the trophy among many bookmakers, something which would’ve seemed most unlikely at the outset of the campaign.
Liverpool have already won at the San Siro and beaten Bayer Leverkusen and holders Real Madrid on their way to securing maximum points so far, and it’s plausible that they could end the league phase with a 100% record as they finish out with games against Girona next Tuesday and Lille and PSV Eindhoven next month.
The Reds already have 15 points in the Champions League, and with eighth-placed Monaco having 10 from five matches, the current projection of 16 to bypass the play-off round means that the Premier League leaders may only need two draws from their final three fixtures to guarantee a top-eight finish.
Of course, a team’s record in the league phase counts for nothing once the knockout rounds begin, where each tie carries serious jeopardy. A team in flying form now could be struggling in March (when the round of 16 takes place), and vice versa.
Nonetheless, by finishing in the top eight – which looks a near-certainty – Liverpool would have home advantage for the second leg in the Champions League last 16, and they’d also be facing a team who are forced to come through the play-off route.
That could still see them meet a big hitter such as Bayern Munich or Atletico Madrid, but given the manner in which the Reds have blitzed almost all comers they’ve faced this season, they won’t fear anyone in Europe.
A seventh European Cup triumph (which’d put them joint-second with AC Milan) seems well within LFC’s reach, if they can maintain the standards they’ve shown under Slot so far.
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