Liverpool 4–2 Hoffenheim: The Reds book their place in the Champions League group stages
Liverpool seal place in the Champions League group stages with 6–3 aggregate victory over Hoffenheim.

Liverpool booked a place in the Champions League group stages as we beat Hoffenheim 4–2 at Anfield to win 6–3 on aggregate.
We raced to a three-goal lead within the first 21 minutes thanks to a brace by Emre Can and a neat finish from Mo Salah.
Mark Uth — who scored Hoffenheim’s goal in the first leg — pulled one back for the German side before the break, after another poor mistake from Dejan Lovren.
Firmino added a fourth goal for us after some brilliant work by skipper Jordan Henderson, before Sandro Wagner’s header late in the second half.
For the neutrals, it was the perfect game. 6 goals. End to end. Open, enthralling, basically all you want in a game of football. The defending however, was poor.
We were brilliant in the first half. Our slick passing and quick attacking play was as good as we’ve seen this season. We moved the ball around quickly, and created many chances.

Our third goal, Emre Can’s second, is an early contender for goal of the season. It was a precise counter-attack started by a pin-point pass from Gini Wijnaldum to Sadio Mane, who raced down the left-flank before backheeling it to an onrushing Roberto Firmino, who then played a superb left-footed cross for Emre Can who volleyed home emphatically with his weaker foot. A dream goal.
Also, we pressed really well today. Hoffenheim were not ready for our Gegenpressing, and simply could not find an answer to our high press. Our fourth goal, epitomised this. Jordan Henderson showed great desire and commitment to win a 50–50 against opposing captain Kevin Vogt, and was through 1-on-1 against their keeper, but was unselfish and laid in on for our Brazilian number 9. Firmino was brilliant by the way. He was at the heart of all things good going forward for us today. His celebration was terrible though.

However, for all our attacking prowess and Gegenpressing, our defensive frailties are a real cause for concern. Dejan Lovren’s error for the first goal was inexcusable; a sloppy pass at the back which led directly to a goal. He was also outmuscled by Sandro Wagner for the second goal. We will have to do better in our defensive third and do our best to cut out silly little errors like this if we want to progress in the Champions League.
If we play like how we played today, it will be a much different story if we played the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Juventus, who are resolute in defence and ruthless in attack. It will be interesting to see how we stack up against them though.

That being said, I am just super stoked that we are back in the Champions League — only the 2nd time in 8 years! Hopefully our return to the competition will help us attract top quality players to the club, and retain some key players. With only a week or so left in the transfer window, we need to make our deals fast.
The seedings for the group stages are below:
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Benfica, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Shakhtar Donetsk
Pot 2: Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, Manchester City, Porto, Manchester United
Pot 3: Napoli, Tottenham Hotspur, Basel, Olympiakos, Anderlecht, Roma, Besiktas, Liverpool
Pot 4: RB Leipzig, Feyenoord, Maribor, Celtic, CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, APOEL Nicosia, Qarabag