my liverpool fc

Champions league curse?

Our columnist Alex has been looking at how Liverpool have done in the league or cup AFTER a Champions League game and BEFORE, with a view to how it has affected our league form and if we tend to lose after a Champions League game.

Results AFTER A Champions League Game Under Rafa Played 40 Won 15 Drawn 9 Lost 16 For 48 Against 39 Clean Sheets 15

Home P19 W11 D5 L3 Away P21 W4 D4 L13 I've excluded the games after the Champions League finals as these weren't played until the following season. I also extracted the multiple consecutive Champions League results where we had to play all qualifying rounds in order to defend our title.

Results BEFORE A Champions League Game Under Rafa Played 40 Won 20 Drawn 11 Lost 9 For 60 Against 33 Clean Sheets 17 Home P20 W15 D4 L1 Away P20 W5 D7 L8

So Liverpool have lost a lot of away games after a Champions League fixture and not so many at home. 25 away defeats in 80 games is 31.25% compared to Rafa's overall 46 defeats in 187 games which is 24.60%.

We are more likely to win at home and lose away anyway, although the number of away defeats after a Champions League game is worrying.

The teams we lost away to after a Champions League game were: 0-1 Bolton 1-2 Man Utd 0-1 Chelsea 0-1 Everton 2-3 Chelsea (League Cup Final*) 0-1 Man City 1-3 Arsenal ------------- 0-2 Fulham 1-2 Arsenal ------------- 0-1 Chelsea 0-2 Bolton 0-2 Man Utd 1-2 Portsmouth *technically the final is on neutral ground, but it is away from Anfield and it's not worth extracting one-offs on neutral ground. So after a Champions League match we've lost away at Man Utd twice, Chelsea three times, Arsenal twice and Bolton twice. Either we have really bad luck or the fixtures are fiddled to give us nasty away games in weeks known to have Champions League fixtures. The divides indicate different seasons, no wonder we lost so many away games in Rafa's first season, 11 league games, when these were so often tough games played after a Champions League match.

Our three toughest away matches on paper are Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd and Rafa's not won in the league away to any of them and we got them ALL after a Champions League game in Rafa's first season. Copyright - Alex for LFChistory.net