Arne Slot believes avoiding the Champions League knockout round is more important than Liverpool finishing top of the 36-team table.
Liverpool maintained their perfect record in this year's competition with a 2-1 win over Lille on Tuesday, sealing their place in the last 16.
It is only the third time an English team has won the first seven games of a European Cup or Champions League campaign, two of which were won by Liverpool (2021-22 and 2024-25 – along with Manchester City in 2023-24). .
Slot also became only the second manager in Champions League history to win each of his first seven games in charge of a club, after Hansi Flick with Bayern Munich (who won their first seven between 2019 and 2021).
Despite their victory, the Reds have not yet secured top spot. Barcelona's dramatic 5-4 comeback against Benfica leaves them three points behind Liverpool, ensuring whoever finishes in first place will advance to the final matchday next Wednesday.
“If you are number 1 in tennis, it is better to play against number 24 than against 12th, but it is a ranking based on years,” Slot said.
“Now we are in a new format where some teams are ranked high because they had a lucky draw and some teams are ranked low because they have a very difficult draw.
'It is far from saying that there is an advantage in being one or two. Maybe you are lucky, maybe you are very unlucky.
“For me it means nothing. The most important thing is that we were able to skip a round.”
Mohamed Salah scored his 50th European goal for Liverpool and substitute Harvey Elliot sealed the victory after Jonathan David equalized for Lille, who had Aissa Mandi sent off just three minutes earlier.
Salah has now been directly involved in 18 goals in 15 games for Liverpool at Anfield this season (10 goals, eight assists in all competitions), the most by any player in Europe's top five leagues at a single venue (one more than Harry Kane at one location). the Allianz Arena, 17).
While Elliot's deflected strike saw Liverpool score a goal from a substitute for the first time since November and December 2007 in four consecutive games in all competitions (a run of five under Rafael Benítez).
Liverpool also set a club record for the longest period without conceding a goal in a European competition, with 599 minutes passing between Christian Pulisic's goal for AC Milan in the opening game of their season and David's goal on Tuesday.
In between, Liverpool kept clean sheets against Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and Girona, and led the 572 minutes without conceding a goal in the 2005-06 season under Benitez.
“Very satisfied,” said Slot. “What I owe everything to is firstly the quality of the players and secondly that these players have a high-quality work rate.
“If you combine those two things, it is very difficult to score against the team. The great thing for me is that we keep a clean sheet, not by defending a lot, but keep a clean sheet by attacking a lot.”
But Slot stressed the need for patience against the Ligue 1 side, who continued to look a threat despite losing in the second half.
Lille had the first shot of this match after 25 seconds, but only managed three more in the rest of the match.
In fact, after Mandi's red card in the 59th minute, they had more shots (three) than in the entire time they had eleven men on the field (one).
“They don't have the best players in the world, but it's about how disciplined they are and how hard they want to work,” Slot said.
“We didn't force the pass, we held the ball as long as possible. The only thing I wasn't happy with was that it was one chance for the other team.”
7 – Liverpool boss Arne Slot becomes only the second manager in UEFA Champions League history to win each of his first seven games in charge of a club, after Hansi Flick with Bayern Munich (won the first seven games between 2019 and 2021 ). Dominant. pic.twitter.com/vCNCtYYnE3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 21, 2025
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