Super Eagles winger Ademola Lookman and his Atletico teammates will be up against Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League clash Wednesday at the Anfield.
Lookman has been listed to start in the showdown that promises to be full of fireworks.
Liverpool new coach Adoni Iraola is upbeat ahead of his first ever Champions League game and has handed the club’s new buy Bradley Barcola starting shirt underscoring his desire to begin his Champions League campaign on a winning note.
This fixture represents a repeat of matchday one from last season when the Reds claimed a 3-2 home victory over their Spanish counterparts, with Virgil van Dijk netting a 92nd-minute winner.
Liverpool celebrated their first win of the Andoni Iraola era last Friday when they secured a 2-0 away victory over Ipswich Town.
Iraola is now preparing for his first taste of Champions League football as a manager, with six-time winners Liverpool seeking to better last season’s quarter-final finish and end their eight-year wait to lift Europe’s most prestigious club trophy.
New big-money signing Bradley Barcola, a two-time Champions League winner with PSG, is being handed his first start for the club on the right flank, which may see Victor Munoz drop down to the substitutes’ bench.
Simeone is, in fact, the longest-serving coach among clubs competing in the 2026-27 Champions League, having taken charge at Atletico in December 2011.
The passionate Argentine is tasked with steering the three-time losing finalists, and last season’s semi-finalists, to their first-ever triumph in the competition this term.
