We’ve got a bumper round-up of Liverpool news for you including Liverpool’s Champions League opponents and all the latest on Federico Chiesa’s transfer.
The Champions League draw
While Chiesa’s signature has taken many of the headlines today, which you can read about below, we’re starting things off with the Champions League draw.
As usual, UEFA made sure to get their money’s worth out of their venue hire, but the draw wasn’t quite as long as usual.
A touch of UEFA’s magic button told us that Liverpool’s Champions League ‘league phase’ fixtures will be:
Real Madrid (H), Bayer Leverkusen (H), Lille (H), Bologna (H), RB Leipzig (A), AC Milan (A), PSV Eindhoven (A), Girona (A)
? Thoughts on the draw then, Reds?
?? Some decent away trips there… pic.twitter.com/XxcRP9ilsw
— This Is Anfield (@thisisanfield) August 29, 2024
Unfortunately, we won’t know until Saturday which teams Liverpool will face on which dates, so a lucky few of you could have a busy day on the laptop booking flights for the Reds and tickets for a certain band.
Read more here
All the info on Federico Chiesa
- Chiesa is a Liverpool player! We knew yesterday this would probably be the case but it is nice to have the move confirmed for peace of mind
- The Italian will take the No. 14 shirt and David Lynch reported on his Substack that he will earn about £81,000 a week, the same salary he was on Juventus – he also turned down interest from Saudi Arabia
- The 26-year-old said that signing for Liverpool “is a dream that has become a reality” – Chiesa spoke really well in his first interview that we covered here
- In fact, his first interview was so good that we put together a list of four things you will like from his chat
- The Italian has had some incredible praise come his way over the years, perhaps most notably from Gianluigi Buffon who, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, said he made him ‘consider retirement’
Today’s other Liverpool FC News
- Trent Alexander-Arnold will play as a right-back for England, said interim coach Lee Carsley – Trent was the only Liverpool player named in the squad
- Liverpool’s left-sided 19-year-old, Calum Scanlon has joined Millwall on a season-long loan in the Championship
- Mo Salah has spoken about his contract situation but remained coy and insisted to Sky Sports that he just wants to “enjoy the last year and we’ll see”
- According to DaveOCKOP, Ben Doak is set to go out on loan to Hull for the season ahead – getting Chiesa over the line surely opens this move up to be completed
Elsewhere in the football world today
- Napoli have signed Romelu Lukaku for £30 million from Chelsea which makes it even more likely the Londoners will move for Victor Osimhen or Ivan Toney
- Kieran Trippier has announced his retirement from international football – at least that means Alexander-Arnold is more likely to play at right-back
- Neal Maupay is on the verge of sealing a move from Everton to Marseille on loan. The striker posted a video online likening his Everton exit to the escape from prison in The Shawshank Redemption and, as you can imagine, it hasn’t gone down well among our Blue brethren
Liverpool FC: On this day
August 29 is a date to remember for several Liverpool heroes who have graced the Anfield turf down the years.
In 2004, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia both made their Liverpool debuts as they started in a 1-0 defeat away at Bolton, Rafa Benitez’s first defeat in the job.
Bruce Grobbelaar also made his first Reds appearance on this day, in 1981, as did Steve Heighway, Craig Johnston, Mark Lawrenson and the biggest legend of them all, Sotirios Kyrgiakos.
For the kids, that was sarcasm, though we did enjoy the big Greek’s style of defending on occasion!
