Liverpool and Aston Villa both got off to a good start in the Champions League as the Premier League clubs won against AC Milan and Young Boys respectively. And that one victory away from home is a substantial step towards progressing to the knockout phase.
According to Opta statistician Nils Mackay, who was writing on X/Twitter, just 10 points should be enough to give any side a 99 per cent chance of progression from the league phase. That involves finishing above the bottom eight places.
The same research suggests that 16 points would be enough to give teams a 98 per cent chance of avoiding the play-off round and going straight into the last-16. That means finishing in the top eight.
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Liverpool hosts Bologna next at Anfield in two weeks before it travels to RB Leipzig and then has Bayer Leverkusen. Real Madrid comes to Merseyside just a few days before the visit of Manchester City before a visit to Girona, a home match against Lille, and a trip to the Netherlands to take on PSV.
"It sounds a bit weird if you play three, four, five minutes and we already conceded one chance, which was offside, and then afterward you concede a goal [and] that I'm going to tell you now that we didn't even start bad," Slot said during his post-match press conference at the San Siro. "I think we took control of the game from the start. But in the first five minutes we also lost the ball from two choices that were not the best to make and then they could counter-attack us.
"Afterwards we dominated possession even more and that didn't lead to counter-attacks from them. Although it sounds weird to say that we started well if you concede two chances, but we took control of the ball from the start of the game. Except from the first five minutes where they had two counter-attacks, I think we dominated possession and created chances as well."
Liverpool.com says: If the Reds can win their home games, that would take them to 15 points given they have already beaten AC Milan away from home. Real Madrid is among that group of fixtures but even in the worst-case scenario, points should be taken from matches with RB Leipzig, Girona and PSV.
Getting into the knockout phase would avoid the need for the play-off round, which would be a massive boost. But getting a top-eight place wrapped up as soon as possible would also allow for more rotation later in the competition. Given the volume of fixtures there are, that could make a massive impact on how fresh the squad is by the last couple of months of the campaign.
