Liverpool cannot escape perverse irony after Jurgen Klopp gets what he needs in Union Saint-Gilloise win

They like to croon about their famous European nights here at Anfield. This, though - a sleepy 2-0 Europa League victory against Union Saint-Gilloise, of Belgium - will never be deemed one of those.

But after the dumpster fire that has become the fallout from Saturday's most controversial and cruel defeats at Tottenham, a relatively routine win in continental action will have been just what the doctor ordered for a club who have become increasingly embattled in their efforts to improve officiating standards at the elite level in recent days.

European competition has often acted as a balm for the domestic ills down the years at Anfield but Liverpool will surely have been stunned by the sheer pushback they have encountered from the wider football fraternity following events in north London at the weekend.

After subsequently branding the mix-up involving VAR Darren England, his assistant Dan Cook and match referee Simon Hooper as "unsatisfactory", among other things, in a thinly-veiled Sunday statement, Liverpool have been met with plenty of dissenting voices in their plan for more transparency over potentially season-altering calls from those in charge.

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Rather than adding further evidence to the bulging dossier that is now screaming at officials in the Premier League to sharpen their senses with the technology that is there to assist them, rival fanbases have seemingly been using their own VAR-related grievances as reasons for why Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp should simply button up and accept their lot in the wake of the