Reds deliver knockout blows

PLAY-OFFS AVOIDED AS QARABAG SWEPT ASIDE

- By PAUL GORST

In a season where it's been almost impossible to draw definitive conclusions, it can at least be said that the European game has been much kinder to Arne Slot and his Liverpool players than the Premier League.

Into the last 16 of the Champions League with plenty to spare, thanks to the biggest victory of Slot's tenure to date, the Reds look an entirely different proposition to the one under seige from low blocks, long throws and overt physicality on the domestic scene.

Fortunately, all of that has been in shorter supply on the continent and it has been much easier for the champions of England to navigate as a result.

Slot concluded last year that a top-spot in this new-look Champions League finish yielded no tangible benefit as they were 'rewarded' for finishing first in the maiden campaign of the revamped and more lucrative tournament by drawing a rampant Paris Saint-Germain side who went on to win the whole thing.

But the 4-1 nadir to PSV in November aside, a result as bad as anything this season, it's been a good few months for the Reds when it comes to solely assessing their continental conquests.

A 1-0 loss away to Galatasaray, via a disputed penalty in late September, can happen to even the most inform of teams, so the verdict of the group phase has to go down as a positive one.

Qualification secured with a 6-0 thumping of Qarabag here and, strange as it might sound given the paucity of what has been served up in the Premier League, very few of the other runners and riders look like stronger prospects to go all the way to the Budapest final, judging solely off the last eight match days.