Liverpool host Napoli Tuesday night in a Champions League group stage fixture that is for all the marbles. Cue up the motivational music from the Rocky film franchise and let your cheesy action film cliches fly because this one is literally ALL OR NOTHING!
Napoli boss Carlo Ancelotti has already made the kind of statements that BRING IT ON! saying his side will be aggressive in this one and not hunker down. In the same news conference, Ancelotti brought up a couple games, one domestic, one European, which are certainly sore memories for Reds supporters.
The Italian began his prematch mind games by recalling his days leading Chelsea, and his victory at Anfield on the penultimate day of the 2010-11 season that brought the west London side to the brink of that season’s Premier League title.
“I have fond memories of Anfield,” Ancelotti said.
“I effectively won the Premier League title there with Chelsea.” He also felt the need to remind the media of the time his Inter Milan side beat Liverpool in the 2007 Champions League final: “When I think of previous matches with Liverpool, I like the one from 2007 in Athens.”
Well, it kind of makes sense that Ancelotti is employing these kind of tactics because he’s well aware of what kind of atmosphere he’ll be dealing with in midweek. Anfield is always electric on nights when there is a massive European clash taking place, and this will be no different.
Napoli will attack, and so will Jurgen Klopp so let’s take a look at who the German might select for his first team.
The Bank Liverpool FC Starting XI Prediction vs AFC Bournemouth (4-3-3)
Forwards: Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah
Midfielders: Naby Keita, Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum
Back line: Andrew Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Goalkeeper: Alisson
Liverpool vs Napoli FYIs
Kick-off: 8pm (BST), Saturday December 11th, Anfield
Chances Advancing to the knockout round via FiveThirtyEight: PSG 82%, Napoli 68%, Liverpool 50%
Google Result Probability: Liverpool Win 60%, Draw 22%, Napoli Win 18%
Odds via Betway: Liverpool 3/5, Draw 16/5, Napoli 4/1
Match Preview/More on Carlo Ancelotti: go to this link
Injury Report, Press Conference Videos and Quotes: go to this link
Prediction: Liverpool 4, Napoli 2
As always, feel free to post your own starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be. Enjoy the match!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.