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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Keifer MacDonald

Trent Alexander-Arnold potential bans explained as seven other Liverpool players learn Champions League fate

Trent Alexander-Arnold is in danger of missing Liverpool's visit to the Santiago Bernabeu next month - with the Reds defender one booking away from a Uefa Champions League suspension.

The 24-year-old and the rest of his team-mates will face off against the 14-time European champions on Tuesday evening at Anfield in a repeat of last season's final at the Stade de France, which the Spaniards emerged victorious from.

Jurgen Klopp's side have accumulated eight yellow cards across their six group stage fixtures this season, with Alexander Arnold's tally of two - received against Rangers and Napoli - the most of any player within the Reds' squad. However, in line with Uefa rules the defender would miss next month's return leg if he was to pick up a booking against Real this evening.

For the right-back, the encounter promises to be anything but peaceful as he prepares to line up against the vibrant Vinicius Jr - who scored the winner in Saint-Denis back in May and also during the quarter-final meeting between the two sides in 2021 - once more.

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Competition rules state that players who receive three bookings will automatically trigger a one-match ban with immediate effect, with further suspensions occurring if a player picks up a fifth, seventh or ninth booking of the campaign.

However, Alexander-Arnold isn't the only member of the Reds squad to be at risk of serving a suspension in the upcoming matches of the competition, should Liverpool progress past the recently-crowned Club World Cup winners.

Virgil van Dijk, James Milner, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo - from his time in the Europa League with PSV Eindhoven - all enter the Anfield leg with one booking to their names and therefore must walk a disciplinary tightrope between now and the end of April's quarter-finals without accumulating two bookings in order to avoid serving a suspension.

Ibrahima Konate also finds himself among the list of the Reds' cautioned players in Europe this term. However, the Frenchman will miss the first leg of the round-16 clash as he continues his rehabilitation from the hamstring injury he suffered against Brighton and Hove Albion at the end of January.

Meanwhile, there are no members of Carlo Ancelotti's squad in danger of missing the return leg in the Spanish capital as Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy and Lucas Vasquez have all received just one caution this season.

All bookings are wiped after the completion of the quarter-finals.

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