It was almost 11 o’clock in Milan, which meant that Arne Slot could finally take it easy and enjoy his 46th birthday. The Liverpool head coach finally got a gift after worrying for a few days about whether his team could make up for their terrible loss on Saturday.

These three points were the first ones in the Champions League. They came in the coliseum-like San Siro, which is one of the biggest sports venues in the world. This was Slot’s first game in Europe with Liverpool, and it was not a good one.

It seemed like his team was going to give up in the first 20 minutes because of all the noise and stress. But goals from both centre-backs—Ibrahim Konate and captain Virgil van Dijk—made Slot’s birthday perfect as they came back from behind to beat AC Milan.

A third goal from Dominik Szoboszlai in the 67th minute put an end to a wasteful finish by the other teams. The slot then appeared more comfortable. Even though the Dutchman is usually cool, he had spent the first hour or so here pacing his technical area out of stress.

He seemed to think he had something to prove. Liverpool was back at the top of Europe’s football leagues with their first Champions League game in 18 months. Slot had to show that he belonged there too. Did he do that? Of course. 

By no means was this a perfect game; Liverpool did look weak at times; but there were signs of tactical maturity, toughness, and effectiveness on both ends. After a bad first 20 minutes, Liverpool barely made a mistake, and Milan couldn’t get back into the game.

Mohamed Salah hit the post twice, and Liverpool had most of the chances. The home team’s custodian, Mike Maignan, had to be at his best to keep more goals from going in. But in the end, two set pieces were enough to win this game.

In 2024, set-piece coaches are romanticized a lot. For example, Arsenal’s Nicolas Jover is almost like a mythical figure, and his name is often found on the back pages of newspapers. It’s funny that Liverpool doesn’t have a dead-ball expert.

The new head coach Arne Slot knew that another loss would make people look closely at him after the loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday. He had to act quickly because he had been brought back to earth to ruin a great start to his life in England.

Getting over a big loss isn’t the best thing to do at the San Siro, though. The noise level was still very loud, even though some parts of the stadium were empty because fans were upset about the high ticket prices. The noise made it seem like Liverpool’s stars might melt away.

So, imagine what Slot was thinking when his team fell behind to a smooth Milan goal with less than three minutes left in the game. A good beginning for him and them. To make things even worse for him, this goal could have been avoided.

Kostas Tsimikas, who was starting ahead of Andy Robertson in one of Slot’s two changes (notable because Slot doesn’t like to switch up his pack), misjudged a header, giving Christian Pulisic free rein of the San Siro. The Americans came at them quickly and shot low and hard.

When the teams were called out before the game, Pulisic’s name got the biggest cheers from the Curva Sud because he is so popular there. He never showed off his full skills at Chelsea. It was clear that Paulo Fonseca’s team was in a good mood, as they kept playing through Liverpool’s press.