It appears that Liverpool will see their European campaign end in a fashion quite similar to last year- in the very late stages, eliminated by one of the two teams in the El Clasico rivalry.
It’s been a great run, and the atmosphere at Anfield promises to be absolutely electric Tuesday night, but in order for the Reds to get through, they would have to do something no one else has ever done before, and they would have to do it very short-handed.
Mohamed Salah is now officially out, so Jurgen Klopp will just hope that the Egyptian scoring sensation can be ready for Championship Sunday next weekend.
Liverpool Starting XI Prediction vs Barcelona UCLeague Semi-final (Barca up 3-0 on Aggregate)
Forwards: Sadio Mane, Divock Origi, Xherdan Shaqiri
Midfielders: James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum
Back line: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Andrew Robertson
Goalkeeper: Alisson
Liverpool at FC Barcelona UEFA Champions League Semi-final (Barca up 3-0 on Aggregate) FYIs
Kickoff- Tuesday May 7, Anfield 8pm
Injury Report for Both Sides: go to this link
Starting XI Predictions- FC Barcelona Liverpool
Google Result Probability- FC Barcelona win 30%, Draw 26%, Liverpool win 44%
Odds via Lad Brokes- FC Barcelona 11/5, Draw 13/5, Liverpool win 11/10
Press conference video, quotes- go to this link
Prediction: Liverpool 2, Barcelona 1 (Barca goes through to the final on aggregate 4-2)
As we saw in the first leg, stopping Messi was a major problem, but there were also severe issues in trying to contain his teammates as well.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets:Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, also contributes to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.