Jamie Carragher picks forgotten Liverpool game as most important win of season

Liverpool have beaten Manchester City home and away this season, and overcome Real Madrid in the Champions League, but Jamie Carragher believes the September victory over AC Milan was their most important of the season.

Arne Slot's team sit 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League table after Wednesday's fixtures. The Reds beat Newcastle United at Anfield, with Arsenal only able to draw 0-0 at Nottingham Forest earlier in the day.

Forest are the only team to have beaten Liverpool in the Premier League this season, winning 1-0 at Anfield in September. The Milan game came three days later, and a second straight defeat could have tripped up the manager before he properly got going.

Liverpool fell behind inside five minutes in that game, with Christian Pulisic finding the net. They came back to win 3-1 at the San Siro, though, and Carragher has pointed to the importance of the match to the Reds' season as a whole.

"I was thinking, you just mentioned the Forest game, and the Forest game came really early in the season," Carragher said on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. "And I think a game that was really important, nothing to do with the league, they played AC Milan away.

"I think AC Milan scored within three or four minutes and it was that thing of like they end up winning; I think it was 3-1. I just look back at that game, sort of now because you mention Forest, and I'm thinking that was a big moment for the manager.

"If you lose at home to Forest and then at Milan, the first game in the Champions League, you lose away - that was probably a massive turning point, that AC Milan game. They're still not the AC Milan of old but it's still San Siro, a big game."

Slot outlined the importance of avoiding a second defeat in the aftermath of the Milan win. "Losing Saturday was a blow and to be 1-0 down early tonight, you are wondering how we react," he told Amazon Prime Video after the game. "But if you can play so good it is - I won't say a disgrace - unbelievable you lose to Forest at home if you can play like this today."

After conceding to Pulisic, Liverpool went five straight matches without conceding a single goal in the Champions League. They topped the league phase table with 21 points from a possible 24, setting up a round of 16 meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

The Reds have also remained unbeaten in the league since that defeat at home to Forest in September, extending that run in the league to 24 undefeated games with their midweek win. By the time they face second-place Arsenal in May, the title could already be in the bag.