Anfield without its No. 11
Eighty-three matches. Forty-seven goals. Nineteen assists. Mohamed Salah will not be there on Wednesday.
Not since 2014-15 have Liverpool begun a Champions League campaign without the Egyptian, who holds the club record in all three of those columns. Nobody is within touching distance of him.
Andoni Iraola takes charge of his first match in the competition. He played in it three times with Athletic back in 2014-15, and his only previous European run as a manager was 2018-19, when he dragged AEK Larnaca through the qualifiers and into the Europa League group stage.
The draw was unkind. Iraola has never beaten a Diego Simeone team. Four attempts, three defeats, one draw.
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Isak got the season moving
The league start was heavy going. Draws with Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, then a 2-0 at Ipswich on Friday that gave Iraola his first win in the Liverpool dugout.
Nine minutes was all Alexander Isak needed. Two goals, both laid on by Cody Gakpo, who was supposed to be leaving in the summer and now has four direct goal contributions in the Premier League: one goal, three assists.
The right flank is the puzzle. Gakpo is the obvious answer. Victor Munoz has looked sharp since arriving. Bradley Barcola, a substitute at Ipswich, might get the nod from the start.
Atletico arrive bruised
Saturday brought a 3-0 beating in Bilbao, at Iraola’s old club of all places, and a first in Atletico’s La Liga history: two goals shipped inside the opening three minutes of a second half.
They keep turning up in Europe regardless. This is a fourteenth consecutive Champions League appearance, one of only six clubs present in every edition since 2013-14 alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.
Marcos Llorente in particular enjoys this ground: four goals in two visits. Julian Alvarez, top scorer in last season’s Champions League with 10 for Atletico, came off the bench on Saturday after a messy summer and a Barcelona move that fell apart.
Liverpool have never lost an opening European home tie. Ten wins and two draws from 12. Opta’s supercomputer makes it 53% for the Reds, 23.5% Atletico, 23.4% the draw.
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