For the third year in a row four Premier League clubs are in the last 16, with Manchester City perhaps the most likely winners
Well, fancy seeing you here. For all the pep and vim, the high-energy caffeine-football combinations of Red Bull Salzburg, there was a feeling of certainty about Liverpool’s progress to the last 16 of the Champions League.
The ability of Jürgen Klopp’s team to win even when the opposition brings its A-game has been a feature of the season. A simple explanation, beyond luck and “LiVARpool” conspiracy theory, is that their base levels are just so high. This is a team of extreme qualities: physical strength, speed, attacking skills. They have more ways to win, more ways to wear you down, like a heavyweight champ who can dawdle through five rounds and still produce at any stage that lights-out right-hander.
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Semi-finalists last year, Ajax were deprived instantly of their two best players and demoted at a stroke to also-rans
Related: Champions League roundup: Ajax and Inter crash out after home defeats
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