One of the few Champions League games with very little riding on it in matchday eight will see Liverpool make the trip over to the Netherlands to face Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday.
Both clubs sit top of their respective domestic leagues, and this will be Arne Slot's first trip back to his homeland since leaving Feyenoord for Anfield in the summer.
Match preview
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Liverpool remain on course to finish top of the inaugural league phase after they made it seven wins from seven by beating a Lille side who had been unbeaten for 21 games last week.
Harvey Elliott's deflected winner sealed the victory, making Slot just the second manager in Champions League history to win his first seven matches in the competition with a single club.
To make it a clean sweep of wins across the league phase though, Slot will have to improve on a poor recent record against PSV from his time in the Netherlands, winning just one of his previous seven head-to-heads.
This Liverpool side continue to set new impressive feats though, as no team has a better win percentage (80%) away from home in this competition since the start of the 2021-22 campaign than they do, with 12 wins from 15.
The goal they let in against Lille also came after the hour mark, meaning they were able to break the club record for the longest time without conceding in the Champions League, which had stood for almost 20 years.
Despite all of these impressive statistics though, Liverpool are still not assured of first place, thanks to Barcelona's astonishing comeback against Benfica last Tuesday, but a top-two spot is sealed, meaning they will essentially be a top seed regardless, in the new tennis-style knockout format.
The momentum continued at the weekend as Liverpool thrashed Ipswich Town 4-1 at Anfield to maintain their six-point lead at the top of the Premier League, but with a very busy 14 days to come after this one, Slot could be tempted to rotate.
A big test at Bournemouth awaits at the weekend, before the return leg of their EFL Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur, a trip to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup, and the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park with Everton.
After a near-perfect start to the season, PSV have been remarkably unconvincing in 2025 so far under Peter Bosz.
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PSV only dropped six points in the first 17 league games of the season, but they let five slip in their first two games of the calendar year, drawing 2-2 at home to AZ Alkmaar before losing at Zwolle.
Even against second-tier Excelsior, Bosz's men were very fortunate, winning 5-4 in extra time after trailing 3-1 with just 10 minutes of regulation time remaining.
A red card to Ryan Flamingo threatened to derail their comfortable position away to Red Star Belgrade last week in their penultimate league phase outing, as a 3-0 lead quickly became 3-2, but they were able to get over the line.
The same scoreline saw them beat NAC Breda at the weekend too, after going behind early on, but that did extend their incredible home form to just one defeat in 53 games across all competitions - winning 44.
Ajax are still just four points behind with a game in hand in the Eredivisie, but PSV can breathe much more easily in the Champions League, because it is practically impossible for them not to progress, with enough teams below them playing against each other, and Dinamo Zagreb needing an 11-goal swing to overtake them.
The hosts are just two points off the top eight still, but there are too many teams above them, so ensuring a seeded spot in the playoff is PSV's best hope from matchday eight.
Team News
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After his red card in the Serbian capital last week, Flamingo will be suspended for this one, joining fellow defender Sergino Dest, who has a long-term knee injury, on the sidelines.
Malik Tillman was suspended for the trip to Red Star, but he has missed the last two weeks of action with an ankle injury anyway, and he is unlikely to return in time for this one.
Luuk de Jong is one of two players with Premier League experience against Liverpool in the squad, and can become the club's all-time record Champions League scorer with another goal, while the other of those two players, Ivan Perisic, will not feature due to being unregistered.
Injuries have been kind to Liverpool this season, but they still have a few setbacks heading into this one, especially for some squad players who may have been utilised, including Curtis Jones, who was forced at half time against Lille last week.
Joe Gomez and Diogo Jota are also a few weeks away from returning, but apart from that, Slot has a full complement to choose from here.
Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are the three players most likely to get a rest, but the former may be keen to start so he has a chance to improve further on his tally of 50 European goals for Liverpool.
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Benitez; Ledezma, Obispo, Boscagli, Mauro Jr; Til, Veerman, Schouten; Bakayoko, De Jong, Lang
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Konate, Tsimikas; Endo, Szoboszlai, Elliott; Salah, Nunez, Diaz
We say: PSV Eindhoven 0-1 Liverpool
PSV are unbeaten in 11 home games in Europe, but their last defeat here came against an English club back in 2022, against Leicester City in the Conference League.
Liverpool have never lost to PSV in six previous meetings, winning the last five, and they will be keen to make sure they end the league phase on top with a 100% record, even if there are some changes to the starting XI.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
