Liverpool vs Red Star Belgrade Predictions

Last season’s beaten Champions League finalists come into round 3 of the Champions League group games with a point to prove after their poor showing last time out. They may have beaten PSG 3-2 in a thriller back on the opening week of the group stages, but they were very tame in their 1-0 loss to Napoli last time out.

That disappointing performances was part of a string of below par performances by Jurgen Klopp’s side, with draws against Chelsea and Manchester City in the league being interrupted by a League Cup exit to Chelsea and that loss to Napoli, making up a 4 match winless streak across all competitions.

Fortunately for the Anfield faithful, that run ended on Saturday as they beat Huddersfield at the John Smiths Stadium. Given how Red Star Belgrade played away to PSG last time out, it’s looking very unlikely that The Reds will slip up here.

The former European powerhouses are back in the Champions League big time, but it didn’t go to plan earlier this month when they visited the French capital. It was a masterclass in attacking football to be honest, and the 6-1 victory for PSG rather flattered their opposition. It could have been double figures on another day.

Red Star are in excellent form domestically, but the level of competition in Serbia isn’t even close to the standards set by the likes of PSG and Liverpool. Admittedly they did put in a good showing at home to Napoli as they took a point from them, but away from home it’s a different story.

The Serbians have won just 1 of their 9 away games against English opposition in European competition, and trying to stop the rot at Anfield is looking like a mountainous task. Indeed, Liverpool’s utterly dominant performances at Anfield was the major contributing factor towards their run to the final.

They haven’t lost a home Champions League game since October 2014, winning  6 and drawing 3 since then. Since the start of last season, they scored a huge 27 goals in their 8 games there, including putting 4 past Hoffenheim, 7 past Spartak Moscow, 3 past Manchester City, 5 past Roma, and most recently 3 against PSG. 4 of these 8 games have seen at least 5 goals scored in total, and given that they’re looking to boost their goal difference in what could be a very tight group, we think this has goalfest written all over it. We’re backing Over 4.5 Goals along with a 5-0 correct score predictions.