By Ian King
Two sturdy sides go head-to-head
So, are Liverpool again on the boil? After the blip of attracts towards Manchester United and Nottingham Forest together with dropping to Spurs within the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final, a semblance of this season’s regular returned at Brentford on the weekend with a 2-0 win, though it took them till stoppage-time and a few very drained defending for this to return to go.
However Lille are not any pushovers. They’ve solely misplaced 4 instances in all competitions this season and haven’t misplaced to anybody because the seventeenth September. Their 5 recreation unbeaten run within the Champions League has included wins towards each Actual and Atlético Madrid, and a draw towards Juventus.
Historical past
These two golf equipment have solely met as soon as earlier than, a two-legged Spherical of 16 match within the 2009/10 Europa League which took place after Liverpool might solely end in third place of their Champions League group. They received the primary leg 3-0 at Anfield, however Lille did win the return match 1-0. Liverpool went on to lose to Atlético Madrid on away objectives within the semifinals that yr.
Key gamers
An damage might give a possibility to a participant whose arrival at Anfield hasn’t fairly caught gentle but. Federico Chiesa has solely appeared twice within the Premier League since arriving from Juventus in August, however he scored his first Liverpool purpose towards Accrington Stanley within the FA Cup and may very well be given one other alternative right here.
Lille’s predominant purpose menace is the Canadian striker Jonathan David, who’s already scored 17 in 30 matches in all competitions up to now this season, together with six in ten on this very competitors.
Group Information
Liverpool’s damage checklist is fairly brief, for the time being. If Chiesa is to get his likelihood, it’s as a result of Diogo Jota picked up an damage final week which stored him out of the Brentford match and which can seemingly hold him absent for just a few weeks. Joe Gomez is injured, and unlikely to return till the beginning of February. Lille even have absentees. They’ll be with out defender Tiago Santos for the remainder of the season, whereas one other defender, Samuel Umtiti, received’t return till the tip of January.
Prediction
That is finally a match between one of many Champions League’s shock groups up to now and one of many favourites to win it outright. Lille are in eighth place within the 36-team group and a consequence for them leaves them on the cusp of qualification for the final 16 of the match themselves. And whereas Liverpool are real European soccer royalty, so are Actual Madrid, and Lille beat them in a bunch match in September. However with the Reds needing only a level to seal their very own qualification Arne Slot will probably be after getting the job finished, and a slender 1-0 win can be greater than sufficient to see them via.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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