The vital question behind Arne Slot’s hopes of following Liverpool’s Champions League giants

Arne Slot knows that he walks in the footsteps of giants at Liverpool. A realist is aware certain references to them are inevitable, particularly of his immediate predecessor. There are times he mentions Jurgen Klopp before anyone else has. And yet, for one night only, the most relevant comparison is not with the German.

Slot’s opening night with Liverpool in Europe, a date with AC Milan, is an instant reminder of Rafa Benitez’s greatest night. If ‘the miracle of Istanbul’ has competition for Liverpool’s most famous game in Europe, it comes from Klopp’s surreal demolition of Barcelona in 2019. There will be other echoes of the 2005 Champions League final in Slot’s debut European campaign on Merseyside: Xabi Alonso, scorer of the equaliser in that 3-3 draw, visits Anfield with Bayer Leverkusen in November and, had he wanted to, perhaps could have been in the home dugout then.

Go back 20 seasons and Slot had a rather lower profile: he was an NAC Breda midfielder then. But a relatively undistinguished playing career can be a common denominator among many a Liverpool manager. So is continental success. Benitez conquered Europe in his debut season; as 21 years earlier, did Joe Fagan. Klopp’s record in the Champions League was arguably more impressive than his achievements in the Premier League, reaching three finals in six attempts and winning the competition in 2019. That his Liverpool were runners-up to Real Madrid in 2022 means much of Slot’s side have proved they can get to the brink of glory; it was also a postscript to Istanbul. Carlo Ancelotti, the beaten manager in 2005, has defeated Liverpool in two finals since then. Their comeback came in seven blistering minutes almost two decades.

When Benitez joined Liverpool, it was as the reigning Uefa Cup winner, courtesy of his exploits with Valencia. When Slot was hired, Liverpool looked at his continental record. They were conscious that he took Feyenoord to their first European final in 20 years, though Roma beat the Dutch club in the 2022 Conference League showpiece. Indeed, as the Giallorossi eliminated Feyenoord from Europe three times in as many seasons, Slot may not savour another visit to Italy.

Feyenoord’s budget was small by the standards of the elite European teams. It means it was scarcely a failure when they exited the Champions League at the group stage last season, finishing third in a pool with Atletico Madrid, Lazio and Celtic, taking six points at home and none away, before then going out of the Europa League to Roma on penalties.

The Champions League’s new format may have benefited Feyenoord: certainly it would have provided a different test of them. For Liverpool, ranked fourth in the Uefa coefficients despite spending last season in the Europa League, the challenge is to secure a top-eight finish. That the two teams they drew from Pot 4 – Bologna and Girona – are from Italy and Spain respectively suggests the task is harder than it could have been. Every point may have to be earned.

For Slot, who rarely rotated his Feyenoord squad, there is the question of how he perms from a larger pool of players. Fielding an unchanged team backfired when Liverpool lost at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday whereas Klopp used the Europa League expertly last year to keep everyone involved: then, however, the format meant Liverpool could lose two group games with minimal consequences.

But if a reason for change in the Champions League was that the format was deemed too formulaic and some pools too devoid of drama, where the finishing positions seemed set in stone before a ball was kicked, that scarcely appeared the case in Group B in 2021-22. Liverpool faced Porto, Atletico Madrid and AC Milan. They won six out of six, while Milan propped up the pool.

Their winner at San Siro came from a throwback to Klopp’s flagship triumph: Divock Origi, the scourge of Barcelona and a 2019 final scorer, signed by Milan in 2022 but denied a reunion as he is no longer even considered a first-team player.

It has been a subplot to Milan’s awkward start under Paulo Fonseca. They recorded a belated first win under the Portuguese on Saturday, beating Venezia 4-0. Yet while their fortunes in Europe have been erratic – they finished third in last season’s ‘group of death’, behind Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain but ahead of Newcastle – they have been semi-finalists more recently than Liverpool, only 16 months ago.

Liverpool may recall, too, that their European campaign that season began in Italy, amid the trauma of a 4-1 evisceration by Napoli. Klopp’s continental adventures were ended by a Serie A side, too, with Atalanta’s 3-0 triumph at Anfield setting up a quarter-final win.

And if the sight of AC Milan may prompt feelings of nostalgia for Liverpool, that could be mutual. It is 17 years now, but the Rossoneri’s seventh and final European Cup was secured against Liverpool, by Ancelotti and in the 2007 final. For Slot and Fonseca alike, it will be impossible to ignore what their predecessors achieved.