Chiesa Left Out of Liverpool's Champions League Squad Again
Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool story was meant to be written under the bright lights of Europe. For now, the stage door has been slammed shut.
The Italian forward has been omitted from Liverpool’s Champions League squad for the upcoming league phase, with Andoni Iraola also leaving out Japanese midfielder Wataru Endo as he finalised his list. In a squad reshaped and sharpened over the summer, there was never going to be room for everyone. Chiesa has discovered that the hard way.
A Familiar Frustration
For the 26-year-old, the snub cuts deeper because he has lived this before. Last season, he also started the campaign outside the Champions League group, watching from a distance while his new teammates carried the European burden.
Back then, his route back into the competition came only after a severe long-term injury to compatriot Giovanni Leoni opened up a slot. Chiesa re-entered the European picture almost by accident, not design. Even his Liverpool debut in the competition — a late appearance off the bench in Italy in September 2024 following his £10m initial move from Juventus — felt like a teaser rather than a launch.
The promise of a fresh chapter has turned into another waiting game.
Iraola’s Ruthless Call
Iraola’s decision underlines the level of competition inside a Liverpool squad rebuilt to contend on every front. Registration limits are unforgiving. So is a dressing room packed with attacking options.
Every name on the Champions League list carries a tactical purpose: balance between youth and experience, between flair and reliability, between versatility and specialists. Chiesa and Endo are the sacrifices this time, victims of numbers and nuance rather than any public fall from grace.
Liverpool will now lean on the remaining depth to survive the grind of Europe’s elite competition. With domestic fixtures piling up around a demanding continental schedule, Iraola has gambled that his chosen group can handle the strain.
Domestic Stage or Bust
For Chiesa, the message is blunt. Europe is closed to him for now. His season lives in the Premier League, the domestic cups, and the training pitches of Kirkby.
If he wants his Champions League narrative back, it starts with sessions behind closed doors: intensity in training, impact off the bench, and performances that make omission feel untenable. The margins at this level are cruel. One strong month can change a manager’s mind. One quiet one can confirm it.
Liverpool’s calendar offers no hiding place. Matches come thick and fast, culminating in a high-profile Champions League clash with Inter on January 19 — a fixture that would have carried a special charge for an Italian winger who once lit up Serie A. Instead, he will watch from the outside again, as his teammates walk out against one of his homeland’s giants.
Injuries reshaped his European fate last season and could do so again. If the campaign takes a familiar twist and gaps appear in Iraola’s squad, the door may creak open. The question is simple: when that moment comes, will Chiesa have done enough in the shadows to demand his name is the one that goes back on the list?
