Liverpool v Red Star Belgrade: Champions League – live! | Football

Tottenham have drawn 2-2 with PSV Eindhoven in Group B. That’s less than ideal. They could do with Barcelona smashing Internazionale now.

Jurgen Klopp speaks! “I don’t know if you can expect an away win at Napoli to be honest. I think the home games in the Champions League, with the quality of the other teams, you should not waste time. We have to try everything to win the game to have a normal situation, which doesn’t mean we are halfway through the group. It only means we have a normal situation, winning two home games and losing an away game. That’s it. Not more pressure. Only enough. Red Star were hard to break down in both games, even if the result in the PSG game sounds different. It is a very experienced side and they are used to getting results. They fight for results. That is what they will do now again.”

Liverpool make five changes to the side that beat Huddersfield on the weekend. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane replace Dejan Lovren, James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana. They possess impressive strength in depth at the moment.

Red Star Belgrade make one change to the side that beat Rad Beograd on the weekend. Out goes Veljko Simic, in comes El Fardou Ben Nabouhane.

Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Shaqiri; Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Mignolet, Moreno, Lovren, Milner, Sturridge, Lallana, Origi.

Red Star Belgrade: Borjan; Stojkovic, Babic, Degenek, Gobeljic; Krsticic, Jovicic; Srnic, Ebecilio, Ben Nabouhane; Boakye. Subs: Popovic, Pavkov, Stoiljkovic, Causic, Simic, Savic, Jovancic.

Referee: Daniel Siebert (GER).

Hello. Boring, boring Liverpool! After setting the pulse racing with their freewheeling attacking last season, Jurgen Klopp’s side have been a little more circumspect at the start of this campaign. They’ve only scored four goals in their last five matches and even settled for a 1-0 score line against Huddersfield last weekend, suggesting that Klopp is morphing into Germany’s answer to George Graham before our very eyes. Apparently this astonishing transformation is because Liverpool are concentrating more on ridding the spirit of Loris Karius from Anfield at the moment. But it might just be because their main attacking talents are slightly out of form at the moment. It’s been known to happen.

Even so, it’s a problem that wants fixing sooner rather than later. Liverpool’s movement has congealed in recent weeks and although it hasn’t had a major effect on their results in the Premier League, they find themselves in a tense situation in their Champions League group after stumbling against Napoli earlier this month. That defeat in Naples has given Klopp’s side some work to do in order to make the last 16, even though they still occupy second place thanks to their superior head-to-head record over Paris Saint-Germain.

It’s tight in Group C and Liverpool need to make the right moves in their double-header with Red Star Belgrade, the supposed whipping boys, before resuming hostitlies with Napoli and PSG. Red Star looked out of their depth against PSG last time out, losing 6-1 to the French champions, but they did hold Napoli in their opening game. They’ll come with a plan to frustrate. Klopp could do with Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane to fin their shooting boots in front of an expectant Anfield crowd this evening.

Kick-off: 8pm BST.