Key events
Pre-match bits and bobs
Team news: Nunez and Gakpo start
Arne Slot makes three changes from Sunday’s win over Chelsea. Andy Robertson and Curtis Jones are rested, with Kostas Tsimikas and Alexis Mac Allister coming into the side. Darwin Nunez replaces the injured Diogo Jota up front and Cody Gakpo is again preferred to Luis Diaz.
Plenty of familiar names in the Leipzig team, including Benjamin Sesko and Xavi Simons, but they are without the Germany international Lukas Klostermann in defence.
Leipzig (possible 3-4-2-1) Gulacsi; Geertruida, Orban, Lukeba; Henrichs, Haidara, Vermeeren, Nusa; Simons, Sesko; Openda.
Substitutes: Vandevoordt, Bitshiabu, Elmas, Poulsen, Baumgartner, Andre Silva, Kampl, Gebel.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Nunez, Gakpo.
Substitutes: Jaros, Gomez, Endo, Diaz, Jones, Robertson, Quansah, Morton, Nyoni, Davies.
Referee Sandro Scharer (Switzerland)
There are loads of other Champions League games tonight, including Barcelona v Bayern Munich. Will Unwin has drawn the Clockwatch straw.
Preamble
Hello, good evening and welcome to live coverage of Leipzig v Liverpool at the Red Bull Arena. You win nothing in October, unless it’s 1988 and the Mercantile Credit Cententary Trophy is up for grabs, but there’s never a bad time to be top of the league. If Liverpool win tonight, and other results that would not stretch credulity go their way, they will be top in both England and Europe.
For now it still feels strange to talk about teams being top of the Champions League. That’ll soon pass – group stages were weird once – and the new competition is starting to take shape. The league stage is essentially a giant game of snakes and ladders and Liverpool would love to get to nine points ahead of the toughest bit of their fixture list: Leverkusen and Real Madrid at Anfield.
Kick off 8pm.
