ROBERTO FIRMINO STARTS AGAINST FORMER CLUB HOFFENHEIM
Roberto Firmino will lead Liverpool’s charge against his former club Hoffenheim as Jurgen Klopp names an unchanged line-up for the first leg of the Champions League play-off.
The Brazil international, who departed the Rhein-Neckar-Arena for Merseyside in July 2015, will be core for the Reds on a ground he impressed on during his four years in the Bundesliga.
Every other player that started Liverpool’s season-opening 3-3 draw at Watford are again named in the XI.
Gini Wijnaldum, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Joel Matip and Trent Alexander-Arnold will make their European bow for the Reds.
Should they be needed off the bench, so will Loris Karius, Ragnar Klavan, Marko Grujic and Dominic Solanke.
Simon Mignolet, Dejan Lovren and Jordan Henderson were in the 11 for the Reds’ last Champions League appearance in December 2014, when they drew 1-1 at Anfield with Basel in the group stage.
Adam Lallana is ruled out for a minimum of two months with a thigh problem, while Daniel Sturridge is set to shake off a mild version of the same problem ahead of the league game against Crystal Palace.
Philippe Coutinho, who submitted a transfer request to force a move to Barcelona, is ruled out through a bad back.
Liverpool starting XI: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Lovren, Moreno, Henderson, Can, Wijnaldum, Salah, Mane, Firmino
