Arne Slotis up and running as the head coach of Liverpool in Europe after his side kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 3-1 win at AC Milan on Tuesday. Goals from Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai sealed the points after Christian Pulisic’s third-minute opener on what was Slot’s 46th birthday.
It means the Reds have started superbly in the revamped, restructured Champions League and they now play Bologna next on October 2 at Anfield.
But you knew all of that, of course. What you might have missed, however, were a series of intriguing subplots throughout the night.
Here, as ever, are the ECHO’s ‘moments missed’ from a statement victory at San Siro.
The boos were audible around a boisterous San Siro as Alvaro Morata tumbled to the deck in the second half. The much-travelled Spain striker, however, could probably still hear the flea in his ear from Virgil van Dijk.
Morata turned avoiding Van Dijk into something of an artform on the night as he constantly looked to move across the Reds’ backline in an effort to find space and avoid detection from the Liverpool captain. But the crossing of their paths were inevitable and the collision in the second period did not end well for the one-time Chelsea striker.
As a long, hopeful punt was put forward from the back, a wrestling match between the pair ended with Morata hitting the deck and Van Dijk demanding his opponent get up having seen no free-kick awarded by official Espen Eskas.
The Rossoneri faithful clearly disagreed with the decision but Van Dijk was in no mood to try and appease Morata who felt the full force of a fume from the Reds skipper. Point made, Virgil.
It was almost like Konate knew. As Ibrahima Konate prepared to take a corner with the scores at 1-1, the Liverpool defender couldn’t suppress his beaming smile as he was marked tightly by not one but two Milan defenders.
As both a frustrated Fikayo Tomori and Youssouf Fofana sandwiched Konate, who couldn’t help but see the funny side of it all, it was the lack of attention on captain Van Dijk that led to Liverpool scoring their second goal instead.
Konate was clearly enjoying himself inside the Milan penalty area and by the time Tsimikas’ header had been nodded home by Van Dijk, so was everyone else in a Liverpool shirt.
As Darwin Nunez and Andy Robertson were warming up on the sidelines in the first half, the pair stopped their routines to briefly watch a free-kick being floated into the box by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Moments later, after Konate had headed Liverpool level, it was all Robertson could do but flash a look of shock to Nunez before that look made way for a broad smile and embrace with his Uruguayan team-mate.
The pair then giddily skipped away down the touchline slapping palms with each other, clearly delighted Konate had made it 1-1 on the night.
A couple of high fives were then exchanged as the pair celebrated the Reds taking the lead, tens of yards away from where the players involved were clambering over each other to salute Van Dijk.
