FeatureLeipzig travel diary: Sunshine, Sudoku and sightseeing

Tuesday

10am, Liverpool: On a pleasantly bright October morning on Merseyside, members of the LFC media team convene at John Lennon Airport. We’re joining the Reds’ U19s players and coaches – travelling for their UEFA Youth League fixture – and other club staff members onboard our flight to Germany. There’s a familiar face with us, too, in the form of Liverpool legend Ronnie Whelan. Arne Slot’s senior squad will fly out later today, after completing their matchday-minus-one session at the AXA Training Centre.

11.30am, Liverpool: Everyone in the early travelling party is now aboard and refreshments – coffee with milk but definitely no sugar for me, by the way – have been served, so it’s time for us to get comfortable for a couple of hours. Tablets and earphones are emerging en masse from hand luggage and, after a frankly pointless final review of the weather forecast for Leipzig (I mean, it’s not like I can repack my suitcase now, is it?), I’m wondering how many episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm I can squeeze in before we land. Let’s see…

2.20pm, Leipzig: Three episodes, it turns out. I’d say that’s pretty, pretty, pretty good (if you know, you know…). Anyway, after feeling the relief of encountering overcast but mild weather conditions and making speedy progress through passport control at Leipzig/Halle Airport, the media team are now in a mini-bus to our hotel. Inevitably, traffic begins to build up as we edge through the outskirts and closer to the city centre but we get to our destination in around half an hour. After checking in, we’ve got a bit of spare time before we head to Red Bull Arena for Slot and Dominik Szoboszlai’s press conference so we head out for a short stroll to familiarise ourselves with our immediate surroundings.

4.45pm, Leipzig: With the senior squad now en route to Leipzig, we’re able to publish news of who is travelling for Wednesday night’s game. A few colleagues from the media team are onboard the team flight and we’re reliably informed that the players are mainly resting after training or watching TV series’ with, for example, Vitezslav Jaros engrossed in the new Netflix basketball documentary, Starting 5. Trent Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, is using the time to exercise his brain by playing Sudoku.

6pm, Red Bull Arena: After a short journey from the hotel, we’re at the stadium in plenty of time before Slot and former Leipzig man Szoboszlai speak at 7.30pm local time. Your Liverpoolfc.com correspondents grab a coffee and take their seats in the media room to await the head coach and his No.8. We also check in with our teammates back home so we can divide our upcoming coverage between us in advance. ‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’ and all that…

9.30pm, Leipzig: With our press conference stories published, we make it back to the hotel in the nick of time to order food before the restaurant closes. In the meantime, talk turns to our plans for matchday as we’ll have a couple of hours or so free before the U19s’ and seniors’ matches. With the weather forecast looking promising, a wander around Leipzig city centre is the early consensus.

• Arne Slot press conference: The boss on momentum and improvement
• Why Dominik Szoboszlai is relishing doing a 'dirty job' for Arne Slot's Liverpool

Wednesday

11am, Leipzig: The forecast was right! It’s a beautiful day here so, while Slot and his players head out for a post-breakfast walk, we plan to explore Leipzig before, all being well, reporting on a pair of Liverpool wins in the Youth League and Champions League.

• RB Leipzig v Liverpool: Champions League team news