Rodgers eyes return to elite

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is confident his side can mount a sustained challenge to bring Champions League football back to Anfield next year.

The Merseyside club, who won it so memorably against AC Milan in 2005 and reached the final two years later, have not featured in European football’s elite competition since the 2009-10 campaign.

Instead the club’s fans have endured its ugly sister the Europa League or, like this season, had to make do with a complete absence of continental action altogether.