Liverpool ace Ibrahima Konate equalised after AC Milan’s opener

Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk turned the game around with a header

Dominik Szoboszlai sealed Liverpool’s first three points in the Champions League

Liverpool have 23 shots while AC Milan just 8 shots

Dominik Szoboszlai added an elegant third to help turn his manager’s 46th birthday into a back-slapping celebration.

It is Milan fashion week with models strutting their stuff on catwalks across the city.

Slot arrived amid sudden doubts about whether he is right to be trying to give his players a makeover after succeeding Jurgen Klopp.

After three straight wins without conceding a goal to start his reign the Kop — yet to fully throw its voice behind him — were asking serious questions.

Yet while Slot wants less of the attacking chaos of Klopp’s regime and more control, this was more like a throwback to the German’s heavy metal vibes

Although the night could hardly have got off to a worse start for him

He made two changes following the Forest defeat, Cody Gakpo in for Luis Diaz and Kostas Tsimikas replacing Andy Robertson. By the third minute the Greek left-back will have wished his boss had not bothered as Milan took the lead.

He was left stranded by a lighting raid down his flank, ignited by Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

His quick clearance was pounced up by Christian Pulisic, with two team-mates powering alongside him.

Konate panicked and was drawn out of position while Pulisic, one of four former Chelsea players in Paulo Fonseca’s line-up charged inside.

Before Alisson knew what had hit him the American attacker had fired across the goal and into the far corner.

Pulisic was joined in celebration by his ex– Stamford Bridge team-mates Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Alvaro Morata and Fikayo Tomori while the stadium’s famous Curva Sud went wild.

Slot and his team had the blues at the point for they were all over the place and their near-4,400 travelling fans, stuck high up in the gods, were fretting once again.

But gradually Liverpool gained a foothold in the game, encouraged by centre-half Strahinja Pavlovic who made a pig’s ear of playing out from the back.

His side survived as Slot’s men swarmed but they were still level by the 23rd minute and the equaliser could not have been simpler either.

Trent Alexander-Arnold clipped in a free-kick from the left, up leapt Konate and completely unguarded headed home. Suddenly Slot’s men were in business again, the kind that had produced that stunning three-game start to the season.

Diogo Jota tore into the box and sent a right footer wide when he should at least have tested Maignan.

Mohamed Salah hit the woodwork with a reflex strike and soon after, slightly off balance, another effort cracked off the junction of bar and post.

Seven-time Champions League winners Liverpool faced six, but it was the Reds who were regaining their rhythm and, most importantly, their confidence.

Jota moved away to look for Salah. This time, Anfield’s Egyptian King displayed even more grandeur, causing Maignan to tremble. However, Tsimikas cut the corner in from the right, and Van Dijk nodded in to give Liverpool the lead at 41 minutes.

Seconds before the break it would have been three but for Maignan brilliantly turning aside a real bullet from Gakpo.

Frenchman Maignan was forced off after a nasty collision with Tomori as Jota swooped in for the kill.

Liverpool finished the showdown with 23 shots — 11 on target — and two of those against the woodwork.

And just to underline their superiority, Szoboszlai contributed a gliding finish in the 67th minute in the victory that was first about substance but in the end was about real style, Slot’s or not.