Archive January 29, 2026

Arne Slot fell into the welcoming embrace of the Champions League while Mohamed Salah felt Anfield’s affection as Liverpool enjoyed a rare night of comfort and joy this season.

The Reds’ Premier League title defence has contained elements of the shambolic, increasing scrutiny and pressure on Slot after winning the title in his first campaign.

Salah’s incendiary Elland Road outburst in December, when he claimed after being dropped that he had been “thrown under the bus” by Slot and Liverpool, only added to the air of unrest surrounding the club.

Liverpool’s faithful old friend the Champions League has provided respite amid their troubles. So could it now rescue their season as they chase a seventh triumph in the competition?

For all their troubles in the Premier League, Liverpool have looked much more at home in Europe, Wednesday’s 6-0 win against Qarabag ensuring an automatic place in the last 16 without the need for a play-off.

And history tells us Liverpool, with the Anfield factor added to the equation, will fancy their chances in the knockout phase.

It is a stretch to paint this Liverpool team, on current form, as anything like potential Champions League winners, but they must never be underestimated over a two-legged format.

This was a night Slot and Salah needed after the turbulence of this campaign. It was their most comfortable game of the season.

It will not turn the spotlight away from Slot with Liverpool so off-colour in the league, but this was as easy as it gets in Europe. Qarabag were compliant opponents, not made of the stuff that enables Premier League opposition to scent blood in almost every game against his side.

It was Slot’s biggest winning margin as Liverpool manager in his 91st game in charge, and their biggest victory since March 2023, when they won 7-0 against Manchester United.

Liverpool’s triumph must be placed in the context of just how abysmal Qarabag were, but any win is good news for Slot and he is getting the best out of them in Europe following the 3-0 victory in Marseille.

It was a landmark night for Salah, making his 80th Champions League appearance for Liverpool to equal Jamie Carragher’s club record.

Of greater significance was that he produced a touch of vintage Salah to ensure he surrounded himself with a different, more satisfying noise, than he has heard this season.

Salah had not scored in his previous eight games for Liverpool, stretching back to the 2-0 win against Aston Villa at Anfield on 1 November. This was all before his rare, but calculated, public attack after sitting out the 3-3 draw at Leeds United.

Liverpool were already leading 2-0 when Salah had the moment he has waited for in the 50th minute.

The Egyptian had been fouled on the edge of the area, making Qarabag pay when he took Dominik Szoboszlai’s quick touch to send a curving left-foot free-kick past goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski into the top corner.

He took the acclaim of his team-mates before standing with arms outstretched in front of the Kop before tapping the badge on his Liverpool shirt, smiling broadly after the turmoil he has been through this season.

After the final whistle he was back in the same place offering his thanks to Liverpool’s supporters on a rare recent night of joy.

It capped a evening of straightforward celebration in a season of tumult for Salah, Slot and Liverpool.

Slot said: “I’m very pleased with the performance. We know we can still improve – and need to improve – in both boxes, but it was a very good performance.

“It’s always important to get the early goals to get the crowd on our side. We know we can do even better, but we’re pleased.”

Ronnie O’Sullivan suffered a 5-3 defeat to Ali Carter as he was knocked out of the German Masters at the second round stage.

Carter hit a 128 break in the first frame and went 3-0 up before the seven-time world champion produced a 93 break on the way to levelling at 3-3.

However, Carter – a two-time German Masters winner – claimed the next two frames to secure his spot in the last 16.

The pair have had their run-ins in the past but Carter played down their rivalry after beating O’Sullivan for only the second time in 22 matches.

“We’ve known each other a long time,” said Carter. “He’s a character isn’t he?

“We are fine now, there is no animosity at all. It is all heat of the moment stuff between two sportsmen and he is the best snooker player of all-time.

Elsewhere, Zhang Anda made a maximum 147 break in the opening frame of his 5-2 victory against Barry Hawkins.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about a maximum in the early part of the break,” said Zhang.

“It only came into my mind later on. I think the crowd already realised what I was trying to do. The atmosphere was fantastic. I really enjoyed that moment.”

Judd Trump and Neil Robertson both made three centuries in respective 5-0 and 5-2 wins against Ryan Day and Pang Junxu.

The league phase of the Champions League is over and we are starting to get a clear picture of which countries could get an extra place next season.

The two which perform best across the three European competitions this season will be handed European Performance Spots (EPS).

That means fifth place in the Premier League table could go from being a Europa League place to a ticket into the Champions League – Newcastle benefited this way last season.

To work out who are the successful nations, Uefa takes into consideration the overall performance of clubs in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

It creates an average by taking the total coefficient score and dividing it by the number of clubs each league has in European competition. The top two in the table get an extra place in the Champions League.

Each win – regardless of the competition – is worth two coefficient points, with a draw worth one.

The key differential is in bonus points awarded based on clubs’ finishing positions in the league phase and knockout rounds, as these are much higher in the Champions League.

By way of an example, the teams that finish 25th-36th in the Champions League got six bonus points – even though they were eliminated.

Yet the team who finished top of the Conference League table – Strasbourg – received just four points.

This means it is almost certain that one of the top European leagues will get the extra places each season.

Here’s what it means after the end of the first stage of the Champions League.

ENGLAND

England is the only country to still have all teams active – and there are nine of them.

It will be very hard for England to throw it away after bagging 72.50 bonus points from the Champions League final placings.

But nothing should be completely taken for granted, as England seemed destined to get an EPS slot in 2023-24 only to suffer a terrible set of results in the quarter-finals.

While it might seem positive that five English clubs made it directly through to the Champions League round of 16, there is a twist.

The rival leagues all have teams in the knockout play-off rounds, and those clubs can score points by winning those two-leg ties.

As a picture of how far England is ahead, German clubs are effectively 17 wins behind, and for the Italian and Spanish it is 20 victories.

GERMANY

Only Eintracht Frankfurt have been eliminated, so the Bundesliga is well placed to take an EPS slot alongside England.

Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund could pick up more coefficient points in the play-offs.

SPAIN

With eight teams in Europe, Spain needed to have a strong campaign.

Chances were severely damaged by Villarreal’s Champions League elimination. And Athletic Club followed them out of the competition on Wednesday, too.

While Spain have six teams still active, each win is worth less to the coefficient than those of their rivals for second place.

ITALY

Serie A had a slow start but remains in contention despite losing Napoli from the Champions League.

Atalanta, Inter Milan and Juventus could all add to the tally in the Champions League knockout play-offs.

PORTUGAL

Portugal did not really stand a realistic chance of making the top two as soon as Santa Clara were knocked out out of the Conference League in the qualifying rounds.

Still, they carry on with four teams active but will need all to go very deep to have any chance.

Benfica can add some coefficient points in February.

POLAND

It will come as a surprise to many to find Poland so high up in the table, and that it was in the top two for a while. But Poland will not be here for long.

All four of the country’s teams have been playing in the Conference League, while over a third of its points were picked up in the qualifying rounds.

With Legia Warsaw eliminated and no bonus points on the way from the Europa League, Poland will drop further on Thursday.

FRANCE

It has been a disappointing season for Ligue 1 teams, starting with Nice’s failure to make it through Champions League qualifying.

It has not got much better from there for Nice, as they are already eliminated from the Europa League. Lille could also yet drop out of the top 24.

Monaco and Paris St-Germain will play in Champions League play-offs but France has become a rank outsider for an extra place.

CYPRUS

Another surprise name on the list, boosted by Pafos reaching the Champions League for the first time.

But with only two teams still active, and both in the Conference League, Cyprus is not a contender.

GREECE

Greece still has four teams active but is a long way behind the top two slots.

DENMARK

Last season, the Premier League’s extra place in the Champions League was confirmed on 8 April.

Such has been the high level of English clubs’ performance in the top competition this season that it could come earlier this time.

Here are some key dates for the diary:

29 January: The Europa League finishes and bonus points will be distributed for final positions.

30 January: The draw takes place for the knockout play-offs of the Champions League and Europa League. The ties will be influential as points can be added to the coefficient score.

24-26 February: Knockout play-off round second legs are played for all three competitions which will result in 24 more teams being eliminated.

27 February: Draws are held to place the top eight teams in each competition into the knockout bracket. This is very important as it creates the full path and determines each league’s maximum coefficient score. It sets out potential meetings of clubs from the same league, or rival leagues for an extra Champions League place.

17-19 March: Second-leg ties for the round of 16 take place in each competition, with another 24 teams knocked out.

14-16 April: Quarter-final ties are completed. It is possible that the extra places will be confirmed.

Arsenal (50), Manchester City (46) and Aston Villa (46) have opened a decent lead over the field in the top three places.

Manchester United (38) hold fourth place and, right now, the extra place in the Champions League would go to Chelsea (37) in fifth.

There are just four points between Chelsea and 11th-placed Sunderland – so we could end up with a race for the prize of fifth place.