2020–21 Liverpool F.C. season

Liverpool 2020–21
Club information
Manager	Jürgen Klopp
Stadium	Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside
League Season information
Final League position	Premier League
Cup placements
FA Cup	Third round
EFL Cup	Fourth round
Champions League	Group stage
FA Community Shield	Runners-up
Season statistics
← 2019-20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 season is Liverpool Football Club's 129th season in existence and the club's 59th consecutive season in the top flight of English football. In addition to the domestic league, Liverpool are participating in this season's editions of the FA Cup, the EFL Cup, the FA Community Shield and the UEFA Champions League. The season covers the period from August 2020 to 30 June 2021.

On 22 November 2020, the team broke the club record for longest unbeaten run at home in the league (which had previously stood at 63) with a 3–0 win over Leicester City. The run ended on 21 January 2021 following a 1–0 defeat to Burnley; it had stood at 68, the second-longest unbeaten home run in English top-flight history.

Season review

Pre-season

Liverpool were not particularly active early in the summer transfer window, their only signing of the summer being Greek defender Kostas Tsimikas, although many links were made with Spanish midfielder Thiago, then a player of Bayern Munich. In terms of summer outgoings, the Reds released Andy Lonergan, Nathaniel Clyne and Adam Lallana, the latter moving to Brighton, and sold Dejan Lovren and Ovie Ejaria.

On 19 August, Liverpool announced meetings with two pre-season friendly opponents, VfB Stuttgart and RB Salzburg, as part of their training camp in Austria. The first took place on 22 August against Stuttgart, The Reds winning 3–0 thanks to goals from Roberto Firmino, Naby Keïta and Rhian Brewster. The second against Salzburg three days later ended in a 2–2 draw thanks to a brace scored by Brewster, after conceding an early brace to opponent Patson Daka. The club's final match of pre-season was played on 5 September at home to Blackpool. Again, the Reds went 2–0 down early on, but goals from Joël Matip, Sadio Mané and Firmino took the game into Liverpool's control. Later goals from Harvey Elliott, Takumi Minamino, Divock Origi and Sepp van den Berg completed a 7–2 route over the Seasiders.

Between the pre-season friendlies, Liverpool, as champions of the 2019–20 Premier League, competed in the FA Community Shield against winners of the FA Cup the previous season, Arsenal. The Reds went a goal down early in the first half conceding to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, however, Minamino's second half equaliser forced the game to penalties. Brewster missed the decisive penalty, and Liverpool missed the chance to win a first trophy of the season.

September

Liverpool's league season kicked off with a home fixture against newly promoted Leeds United on 12 September. In an eventful game, the Reds won 4–3 over the Championship winners; Mohamed Salah opening the scoring early in the match from the spot after a handball by Robin Koch, only for Jack Harrison to equalise for the visitors soon after. Virgil van Dijk restored Liverpool's lead with a header, only to be at fault for Leeds’ equaliser just ten minutes later, Patrick Bamford the scorer. Salah scored Liverpool's third minutes later, concluding a competitive first half. The home side were ahead and in control until midway through the second half, when a Mateusz Klich volley levelled the scores for a third time. In the closing stages, however, Leeds’ new signing Rodrigo committed a strong challenge on Fabinho in the box, resulting in the awarding of Liverpool's second penalty of the night. Salah scored, sealing his hat-trick and ensuring the defending champions emerged victorious in their first league game of the season.

On 18 September, Liverpool confirmed the signing of long-term target Thiago for a fee in the region of £20m. The following day, the Reds reached an agreement with Wolves for the transfer of Portuguese forward Diogo Jota for around £45m, seeing youth prospect Ki-Jana Hoever moving the opposite direction for a potential fee of £13.5m. The moves were confirmed on the same day on the club's official website. Towards the end of the window, the club also sold Rhian Brewster to Sheffield United, for a fee of around £23m.

The next fixture saw Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge on 20 September to face Chelsea. The game was relatively balanced until the hosts were reduced to ten men after Christensen’s sending off on the stroke of halftime. Early in the second half, Mané scored a quick brace – firstly heading in from Firmino's cross, then capitalising on a Kepa Arrizabalaga mistake. Chelsea were handed the opportunity to get back in the game from a penalty following Thiago's foul on forward Timo Werner, but Jorginho's shot was saved by Alisson. The visitors created several more chances, comfortably dominated possession and left London with a 2–0 victory and all three points.

October

On 4 October, Liverpool were defeated 7–2 by Aston Villa at Villa Park. Not only did the scoreline represent the first time the club had conceded 7 goals in a match since 15 April 1963 against Tottenham Hotspur, but was at the hands of a Villa team almost relegated at the end of the previous season. The 5-goal margin also equalled Liverpool's heaviest defeat in the Premier League.

The following league match on 17 October in the Merseyside Derby against Everton controversially ended 2–2, after club captain Jordan Henderson’s strike in second half injury time was ruled out by the VAR officials, denying Liverpool of a late victory. Even so, the result signified a decade-long run of 23 games unbeaten for Liverpool against their city rivals - a new club record for longest run of games unbeaten against an opponent. The Reds suffered two major injuries during the game, Virgil van Dijk suffered a cruciate ligament injury following a reckless challenge by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, the club soon after confirming that knee surgery would be required and that a lengthy recovery lay-off was forthcoming. While after the match Jurgen Klopp revealed that new signing Thiago had suffered an injury following another bad challenge, this time from striker Richarlison, who received a straight red card for the tackle.

Holding a potentially perilously long injury list including first choice goalkeeper Alisson, Liverpool travelled to the Netherlands on October 21 to begin their Champions League campaign against Dutch side Ajax. The match was also the first without Van Dijk, leading manager Klopp to deploy midfielder Fabinho as a central defender. A first half own goal scored by opposition defender Nicolás Tagliafico from a wayward Sadio Mane shot and a crucial goal-line clearance by Fabinho secured a hard-fought 1–0 victory.

Liverpool played their 6th Premier League game of the season against Sheffield United at Anfield on October 24. Fabinho conceded a penalty early in the match, Sander Berge consequently converting the spot-kick to give United the lead. Minutes before the interval, however, Roberto Firmino pounced on a saved Mane header to level the scores, Mane again being called into action later in the match with a precise cross into the box to Diogo Jota. Jota marked his first league start for the club with a headed goal and Liverpool held on to win 2–1, continuing their unbeaten run at Anfield.

November

On 22 November, Liverpool won 3–0 at home to Leicester City in a club record 64th consecutive league match unbeaten at Anfield – surpassing the previous record of 63 games under Bob Paisley between 1978 and 1981.

December

On 16 December, Liverpool went back to the top of the Premier League table by beating Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah and a late header from Roberto Firmino. They followed this win with a 7–0 thrashing of Crystal Palace.

January

An away 1–0 loss to Southampton on the 4th of January, followed by a 0–0 home draw at Manchester United on the 17th of January put them at 4th place in the Premier League table, and 5 points off of the top. A 1–0 loss to Burnley followed. This ended Liverpool's 68-match unbeaten streak at home, and was Burnley's first win at Anfield in nearly 50 years. On January 28th, they beat Tottenham Hotspur 3–1, which was followed by another 3–1 win, this time against West Ham United.

February

Liverpool lost 1–0 to Brighton at Anfield. Liverpool lost 1–4 to Manchester City at Anfield. Then, Liverpool lost 3–1 to Leicester City at King Power Stadium. Their next fixture was against RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League which they won 2–0. Then, on 20th, they lost to Everton for 2–0 at Anfield, their first derby defeat in a decade and their first at home in the 21rst century. They won 2-0 against bottom placed Sheffield United on 28 February.

March

On 4 March Liverpool lost 1-0 to Chelsea, tasting defeat in 5 home games in a row for the first time in the club's history. However, three days later the record was broken with another home defeat against Fulham 0-1 which was their sixth straight home loss.

Kits

Home

Away

Third

UEFA Champions League

Main article: 2020–21 UEFA Champions League

Liverpool entered the competition in the group stage.

Group stage

Main article: 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage#Group D

The draw for the group stage was held on 1 October 2020.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Liverpool	6	4	1	1	10	3	+7	13	Advance to knockout phase
Atalanta	6	3	2	1	10	8	+2	11
Ajax	6	2	1	3	7	7	0	7	Transfer to Europa League
Midtjylland	6	0	2	4	4	13	−9	2

1 21 October 2020	Ajax	0–1	Liverpool	Amsterdam, Netherlands
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)	Promes 90+3'	Report	Tagliafico  35' (o.g.) Milner 38' Alexander-Arnold 80'	Stadium: Johan Cruyff Arena Attendance: 0 Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

2 27 October 2020	Liverpool	2–0	Midtjylland	Liverpool, England
21:00 CET (UTC+1)	Milner 41' Jota  55' Salah  90+3' (pen.)	Report	Scholz 19' Onyeka 25' Cajuste 32' Paulinho 90+1'	Stadium: Anfield Attendance: 0 Referee: Paweł Raczkowski (Poland)

3 3 November 2020	Atalanta	0–5	Liverpool	Bergamo, Italy
21:00 CET (UTC+1)		Report	Jota  16', 33', 54' Wijnaldum 21' Jones 21' Salah  47' Mané  49'	Stadium: Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia Attendance: 0 Referee: Ovidiu Hațegan (Romania)

4 25 November 2020	Liverpool	0–2	Atalanta	Liverpool, England
21:00 CET (UTC+1)	Tsimikas 58'	Report	Iličić  60' Gosens  64' De Roon 89'	Stadium: Anfield Attendance: 0 Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain)

5 1 December 2020	Liverpool	1–0	Ajax	Liverpool, England
21:00 CET (UTC+1)	Jones  58' Wijnaldum 70' Henderson 90+1' Mané 90+3'	Report	Schuurs 42' Blind 55'	Stadium: Anfield Attendance: 0 Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany)

6 9 December 2020	Midtjylland	1–1	Liverpool	Herning, Denmark
18:55 CET (UTC+1)	Onyeka 9' Cools 31' Scholz  62' (pen.) Anderson 81'	Report	Salah  1' Kelleher 61'	Stadium: MCH Arena Attendance: 0 Referee: François Letexier (France)

Knockout phase

Main article: 2020–21 UEFA Champions League knockout phase

Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 14 December 2020.

First leg 16 February 2021	RB Leipzig	0–2	Liverpool	Budapest, Hungary
21:00 CET (UTC+1)	Haidara 5' Mukiele 5' Nkunku 52' Angeliño 65' Olmo 76'	Report	Salah  53' Mané  58' Kabak 69' Henderson 81'	Stadium: Puskás Aréna Attendance: 0 Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia)

Second leg 10 March 2021	Liverpool	2–0 (4–0 agg.)	RB Leipzig	Budapest, Hungary
21:00 CET (UTC+1)	Salah  71' Mané  74'	Report		Stadium: Puskás Aréna Attendance: 0 Referee: Clément Turpin (France)

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 19 March 2021.

First leg 6 April 2021	Real Madrid	v	Liverpool	TBD
21:00 CEST (UTC+2)		[ Report]

Second leg 14 April 2021	Liverpool	v	Real Madrid	Liverpool, England
20:00 BST (UTC+1)		[ Report]		Stadium: Anfield