Liverpool: Defender Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool are back where they need to be as he prepares to lead the club upon their return to Champions League duty in Milan on Tuesday.

Liverpool competed in the Europa League last season, eventually bowing out in the quarter-finals to Atalanta. Liverpool go back to Italy after losing for the first time under Arne Slot, against Nottingham Forest at Anfield on Saturday, delivering a subpar performance against the team that finished 17th last season. They will face a Milan team that has won one of their opening three Serie A fixtures.

“I missed it,” Van Dijk said of the Champions League. “I can’t wait to be out there hearing the Champions League tune and leading out the boys. A club like Liverpool needs to be in the Champions League and we are finally back and let’s go out there and put a much better performance in than we did on Saturday as it is needed otherwise you are going to have an issue.

“I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully all our fans travelling over there to support us will be in high spirits and loud voices.”

It is a quick turnaround from the loss to Forest with Liverpool only having two days to recover before they take on the club they beat in miraculous circumstances in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul.

The Merseyside club have a tough collection of fixtures in the new league format, with Bologna, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig and Real Madrid to come before the end of November.

Juventus’ new signing Teun Koopmeiners has gelled with the team and will excel if included in the opener at home to PSV Eindhoven, manager Thiago Motta said on Monday.

The 26-year-old has played two games for the Italian side since joining from fellow Serie A club Atalanta for a reported fee of around $60.85 million in August.

Motta said Koopmeiners, who missed out on a place at the Euros with the Netherlands after picking up a muscular injury in a warm-up match, is training well with his Juve teammates

“It doesn’t look like he hasn’t trained for a month. He’s integrating very well. He’s trying to put all his qualities at the disposal of the team. Everyone who is called up tomorrow (Monday) is doing very well,” Motta told reporters. “We expect everything. If he plays tomorrow he will perform great. Together with teammates, he can do great things.”

Motta joined as head coach in June and is looking forward to leading the team in the Champions League after they were banned last year for breaching licensing and Financial Fair Play rules.

“Great pride to start this competition. Then we play at home against a good team. I can’t wait to start the match. We want to put in a great performance”, Motta said.

With inputs from Reuters