FC Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has had the decision of who to start on the wing- Ousmane Dembele or Philippe Coutinho, made for him. Dembele is now out for the season after he re-aggravated his hamstring injury after just six minutes of action versus Celta Vigo.
Although to be fair, Valverde probably made his mind up before the match, as he rested Coutinho for the domestic match, with an eye on the second leg of the UCL semifinal tie. Now they have their eyes on their first UCL final appearance since 2015, and it’s very well within their grasp.
No team has overcome a three-goal disadvantage in a semifinal in the Champions League era (since 1992), and that is exactly what Barca’s opponents, Liverpool are staring up against.
FC Barcelona Starting XI Prediction at Liverpool FC UCL Semifinal Leg 2/2
Phillipe Coutinho Luis Suarez Lionel Messi
Arthur Melo Sergio Busquets Ivan Rakitic
Jordi Alba Clement Lenglet Gerard Pique Sergi Roberto
Marc-Andre ter Stegen
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.
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