Key events
Presumably Liverpool drive their club coach to every European away game, but that’s a lot of miles – according to a popular online search and mapping company the best route from Anfield to Stadion Letná is 1,006 miles long.
The teams!
The teams are in and they look like this:
Sparta Prague: Vindahl, Vitik, Krejci, Sorensen, Preciado, Kairinen, Solbakken, Zeleny, Birmancevic, Kuchta, Haraslin.
Liverpool: Kelleher, Gomez, Quansah, Konate, Robertson, Elliott, Endo, Mac Allister, Gakpo, Nunez, Diaz.
Referee: José María Sánchez (Spain)
Our team to take on Sparta Prague 💪
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 7, 2024
Preamble
The bad news for Liverpool, less than 72 hours before their crunch Premier League encounter with Manchester City, is that their weekend opponents have their feet up, having eased past Copenhagen in the Champions League last night despite resting seven members of the team that started the Manchester derby and taking another one off at half-time.
Liverpool meanwhile have a first leg in Prague to deal with, and there must be a temptation, with a rematch at Anfield next week to fall back on, to see what they can get away with. Sparta came second in their group to Rangers while losing away to both them and Real Betis, and again at Galatasaray in the knockout round play-offs. Travelling doesn’t seem to be their strong point (they’re four points clear at the top of the Czech league, and unbeaten at home, but haven’t won as many away points as Slavia Prague). So keep it tight tonight and run rampant at Anfield, yes?
Mo Salah is back in the squad having played just once for the club since January. But how much will we see of him? Presumably, just enough to send him into the weekend purring. “What can we give him? How much can we use him? We will see that,” promised Jurgen Klopp.
“We expect a very tough game,” Alexis Mac Allister said yesterday. “We know that they are unbeaten at home, top of the league, and that tells you that they are a very good team. Of course we have seen some videos and we know what they do, but we need to focus on ourselves. If we focus on ourselves we have the chance to win this game and that’s what we want. But they are definitely a very good team and it’ll be a great battle.”
It promises to be an interesting evening. Here’s Andy Hunter’s preview:
Mohamed Salah is in line to make his Liverpool comeback against Sparta Prague on Thursday with Jürgen Klopp admitting he needs his leading goalscorer for a critical period in the quadruple-chasing season.
Salah has given Liverpool another lift ahead of the Europa League last‑16 first leg tie and Sunday’s top of the table clash with Manchester City by resuming training after more than a fortnight out with a hamstring injury.
Klopp claimed the forward, who has scored 19 goals this season, may not have been considered for the trip to Prague under normal circumstances, having only returned to training on Monday. But with both legs of the Europa tie, City’s visit to Anfield plus an FA Cup trip to Manchester United all to come in the next 11 days, the Liverpool manager needs Salah back up to speed urgently.
Much more here:
