Liverpool will try to kick-start their Champions League campaign when they host Ajax on Tuesday night, and Trent Alexander-Arnold will hit an impressive European milestone if he shows up.
The right-back could become the 26th player to reach 50 European appearances for Liverpool.
If he does, he will be the youngest in club history to reach the milestone at the age of 23 years and 341 days.
Jurgen Klopp has won all four of his meetings with Ajax: the first two at Borussia Dortmund and the others when Liverpool met them in the 2020/21 Champions League group stage.
Reds with the aim of avoiding unwanted records
If Liverpool are beaten here, they will have lost their first two group games in European competition for the first time in their history.
They have not lost consecutive European matches since losing both of their Champions League round of 16 matches to Atletico Madrid in 2019/20.
Having been beaten by Real Madrid and Napoli in their previous two Champions League games, defeat against Ajax would see them lose three successive European games for the first time since the 2014/15 group stage.
The defeat at Napoli was only the seventh time in their European history that Liverpool have conceded four goals or more in a game, while they have never done so in successive games.
In all competitions, the last time Liverpool conceded four goals in consecutive games was in April 2009, away to Chelsea in the Champions League and at home to Arsenal in the league, both finishing 4-4.
Liverpool against Ajax and Dutch rivals
The two teams have met four times in two draws.
The first occasion was in 1966/67, when Ajax won the first leg of the European Cup 5-1 in Amsterdam, Johan Cruyff scoring twice, before drawing 2-2 in the second leg at Anfield.
Two seasons ago they met in the Champions League group stage, with Liverpool beating Erik ten Hag’s men twice by a single goal.
After winning thanks to an own goal in Amsterdam, Curtis Jones scored on his European debut in the second leg, on a night in which Caoimhin Kelleher, Diogo Jota and Rhys Williams also made their first European appearances for the Reds.
Liverpool are unbeaten in the eight ties they have played against Dutch teams at Anfield, having won six and drawn two.
Five of those victories have come in this competition.
Champions nights return to Anfield
In all European games, Liverpool have won six of their last 10 games at Anfield, with both losses coming at the hands of Italian sides: Atalanta and Inter Milan.
Last season, the Reds scored 12 goals in their six Anfield games in this competition, with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino each scoring twice.
Klopp’s side scored seven goals at home in the 2021/22 group stage.
The last Liverpool player to score a hat-trick at Anfield in Europe was Philippe Coutinho, who scored three in a 7-0 win over Spartak Moscow in December 2017.
Darwin Núñez and Ajax meet again
This is Ajax’s fifth consecutive campaign in the Champions League, with the Dutch champions eliminated in the round of 16 last season.
Like Liverpool, they came out of the group stage with a 100 per cent record, winning both games against Sporting Lisbon, Borussia Dortmund and Besiktas.
He was eliminated by Benfica in the round of 16, drawing 2-2 in the first leg, before a certain Darwin Núñez scored the winning goal in Amsterdam.
Virgil van Dijk was teammates at Southampton with Dusan Tadic and Maarten Stekelenburg, who are expected to be in the Ajax squad tonight.
No Ten Hag, no problem
Former manager Ten Hag, who left to join Man United in the summer, was replaced as manager by Alfred Schreuder, 49, who was the club’s assistant in 2018/19. Last season he led Club Bruges to the Belgian league title.
This season, Ajax are leaders of the Eredivisie with a 100 per cent league record and have won seven of their eight matches in all competitions.
They have scored 28 goals in their eight games in all competitions this season, netting at least twice in each of their last four domestic games.
Schreuder’s team won all their away league games in 2022/23: at Fortuna Sittard (3-2), Sparta Rotterdam (1-0) and Utrecht (2-0).
It has also been 530 minutes since they last conceded a goal, having kept a clean sheet in each of their last five games.
referee tonight
The Portuguese Artur Dias will take charge of a Liverpool game for the first time tonight.
In his two Champions League games this season, both qualifying, he has issued 11 yellow cards and one red.
This season’s scorers
Liverpool: Diaz 4, Firmino 3, Salah 3, Alexander-Arnold 2, Carvalho 2, Núñez 2, Elliott 1, Van Dijk 1, own goals 1
Ajax: Bergwijn 8, Kudus 5, Berghuis 3, Brobbey 3, Taylor 3, Antony 2, Rensch 2, Alvarez 1, Klaasen 1
*Stats courtesy of LFC statistician Ged Rea (@ged0407).
