An early happy May Day to all the Liverpool FC supporters, FC Barcelona fans and neutrals who are highly anticipating the UEFA Champions League clash on May 1 at the Camp Nou. It’s the first leg of the semifinal tie that is considered the “real” final.
No offense to Ajax vs Tottenham Hotspur, but that match is essentially the “junior varsity” of the two UCL semifinal ties. There are storylines aplenty here, with perhaps Philippe Coutinho the biggest headliner of all. Look for him to line up on the left side Wednesday night as he tries to help lead Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and company to victory against his former side.
CMS will be in effect, and we’re not talking about content management systems.
Barcelona are the overwhelming favorites among all the teams in the semis, so Liverpool are fighting on against all odds. In order to get a result in Catalonia they will need all hands on deck and that leads us to discussing another Brazilian, forward Roberto Firmino, who missed Friday night’s 5-0 win at home over Huddersfield Town due to a muscle tear.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp seems confident that he’ll have Firmino available for selection here. Klopp said the injury isn’t serious, as Bobby participated in training over the weekend, but we won’t really know for sure until the German’s news conference tomorrow.
Meanwhile midfielders Adam Lallana and Fabinho are also battling knocks, but could be in contention for this match, one where the stakes are incredibly high. Even at 100%, both might not even make the starting XI anyway though.
For Barcelona, they are essentially at full fitness. Having already wrapped up La Liga, they will be locked and loaded, intensely focused on winning this one.
Liverpool at FC Barcelona UEFA Champions League Semi-final FYIs
Kickoff- Wednesday May 1 Camp Nou 8pm
Starting XI Predictions- FC Barcelona Liverpool
Google Result Probability- FC Barcelona win 51%, Draw 26%, Liverpool win 23%
Referee- Bjourn Kuipers
Odds via Sky Bet- FC Barcelona 17/20, Draw 14/5, Liverpool win 29/10
Press conference video, quotes- coming Tuesday
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.