Liverpool close to perfection – who else shone in Champions League?

Although Arne Slot’s side may have missed out on perfection, they still held the top spot in the Champions League phase table.

Having won their opening seven games, defeat by PSV Eindhoven prevented the Reds from becoming the competition’s 14th team to win all of their group-stage games in a season.

On Friday, Liverpool will learn who their potential Champions League opponents might be until they are one of the favorites to win the title.

Which clubs can you use to stop them the best?

The English Premier League was the league phase’s strongest division.

Liverpool, Arsenal, and Aston Villa were three of the top eight teams in the Premier League, and they all advanced to the last 16.

The other, Manchester City, sneaked into the play-off round with a final-day win over Club Brugge.

Only other leagues with multiple teams making it to the last 16 were Spain’s La Liga.

Real Madrid and Barcelona finished in the top eight, while Barcelona and Atletico Madrid made a play-off spot.

Three out of the five Italian Serie A clubs made the play-offs, with Inter Milan into the last 16 and Bologna eliminated.

Lille were the only French side to finish in the top eight, as Paris St-Germain, Monaco and Brest made the play-offs.

A record 470 goals were scored in the league phase, surpassing the previous group-stage best of 308 set in 2019 as more teams and more matches were created.

Barcelona scored the most with 28 league-phase strikes, again a group-stage record, which they took with a game to spare.

Fuelled by Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha (more on them later) the five-time winners netted in all of their matches, hitting four or more against Bayern Munich, Benfica, Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade.

The highest scoring match was Bayern Munich’s opening day 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb.

The German giants, however, only managed 11 goals in each of their next seven games.

Sparta Prague defeated Atletico Madrid 6-0 on matchday five to claim the biggest away win of the league.

Goals were plentiful. If you attended a league-phase match you had over a 94.4% chance of seeing one.

Barcelona’s Lewandowski and Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy are the competition’s top scorers with nine goals each.

Both of them were unable to topple Cristiano Ronaldo’s group-stage goalscoring record of 11 goals in six games for Real Madrid in 2015-16, however.

Charles de Ketelaere, a Belgian midfielder who had five assists, was a key contributor for Atalanta.

De Ketelaere also scored four goals for his team (nine out of 20) and directly contributed to almost half of them.

Raphinha, who had eight strikes and four assists, had the most goal involvements, though.

Dinamo Zagreb kept clean sheets against Red Bull Salzburg and Celtic despite losing to Bayern Munich in their opening game 9-2.

Red Bull Salzburg and Slovan Bratislava, who combined for the unfavorable title of most goals conceded, scored 27 goals, a record for a Champions League group stage.

With the keeper one of the 34 who played every minute, Slovakia stuck with Dominik Takac between the posts.

On matchday six, Inter Milan faced Bayer Leverkusen, who had the worst defense, conceding just one goal.

In terms of reds, Monaco, Lille and Juventus all had two each.

Bologna received the most yellow cards (30), followed by Real Madrid and AC Milan, who had the second-most.

Lastly, a look at form. After beginning their campaign with two defeats out of three, Atletico Madrid have since had the longest winning streak in five games.

Sporting Lisbon, in contrast, had a strong start but was ultimately beaten on goal difference, lost three, and drawn one of their previous four.

Watch highlights of every Champions League game on BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, and the BBC Sport website and app from 12:00 to eve of the match.