AJAX v LIVERPOOL STATS AND FACTS

LEGENDARY The Daily Mirror was in Amsterdam to witness Liverpool’s famous 5-1 thrashing in the fog. Celtic, meanwhile, made the last eight and went on to win the European Cup

Ajax and Liverpool will meet for the first time since the 1966-67 European Cup, where the Dutch side eliminated the Reds with a 7-3 aggregate victory in the last 16.

Since losing 1 -5 against Ajax in December 1966, Liverpool have gone unbeaten in their 13 games against Dutch opponents in European competition (W8 D5).

Ajax have won only one of their previous six games against English opponents in European competition (D2 L3), going winless in the most recent three since a 1-0 victory against Spurs in the Champions League semi-final first leg in 2018-19.

This will be Liverpool’s first away game against Dutch opposition since September 2010, when they drew 0-0 at FC Utrecht in the Europa League. The Reds are unbeaten in their last six away trips to face Dutch sides, keeping a clean sheet in four of those (W3 D3).

Ajax have won just one of their previous seven home games in the Champions League (D2 L4), with two of the last three defeats in this run coming against English opponents – 2-3 v Spurs in May 2019 and 0-1 v Chelsea in October 2019.

Liverpool have lost their last two games in the Champions League (both against Atletico Madrid last season), while they haven’t suffered three consecutive defeats in the competition since October-november 2014, under Brendan Rodgers.

Ajax’s Dusan Tadic has had a direct hand in 13 goals in 18 appearances in the Champions League (six goals and seven assists); the most of any player for the Dutch side since the start of the 2018-19 campaign.

Roberto Firmino has been directly involved in 26 goals in 33 Champions League games for Liverpool (15 goals and 11 assists) since his debut in the competition in 2017-18. The only other player to have scored 10+ goals and made 10+ assists in this period is Kylian Mbappe (13 goals, 13 assists).

Should he appear in this game, Klaas-jan Huntelaar (37y 71d) would become just the second player to feature for Ajax in the Champions League at the age of 37, following Danny Blind back in 1998.

Since making his Champions League debut for Liverpool in September 2017, Mohamed Salah has netted 19 goals in the competition for the Reds – the most of any player for an English club in this period.