Skip to main content

Liverpool to play Manchester United in Europa League last 16



Jürgen Klopp claimed he wanted to draw Manchester United in the last 16 of the Europa League as Liverpool need to “clear something” after two defeats to Louis van Gaal’s team this season.
England’s most successful clubs were pitted against each other for the first time in European competition on Friday, with the mouthwatering ties taking place at Anfield on 10 March and Old Trafford a week later. The first leg will kick-off at 8.05pm, the second at 6pm. Van Gaal has never lost against Liverpool, winning all four Premier League games as United manager including a 3-1 win at home to Brendan Rodgers’ team in September and last month’s 1-0 win on Merseyside.

Wayne Rooney’s 78th-minute winner at Anfield effectively ended Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League qualification and left Klopp wanting redress. Having predicated a meeting of the fierce north west rivals before Liverpool overcame Augsburg in the last 32, the Liverpool manager believes that opportunity has arrived in Europe.
“It’s great,” Klopp said. “We deserve these games. It is not easy but you can ask my staff. They asked me yesterday who do we want and I said Manchester United. I think we have to clear something. We had a good game when I was here but we lost 1-0. That was not what we deserved that day but we got it. Life has given us a chance to make it better and that is what we have to do and will try to do. In this round there was no easy game. Manchester United, cool.”
United have the advantage of the second leg on home soil but face a demanding fixture schedule compared to Liverpool. Van Gaal’s side host West Ham United in the FA Cup quarter-finals between the Europa League ties – when Liverpool will have a free weekend having been knocked out of the competition by Slaven Bilic’s team – and have the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium three days after the second leg.

Tottenham Hotspur’s reward for a comprehensive defeat of Fiorentina is a meeting with tournament favourites Borussia Dortmund. Mauricio Pochettino’s team will be at White Hart Lane for the second leg against the second-placed side in the Bundesliga. Gary Neville also faces a difficult task to reach the quarter-finals after Valencia landed an all-Spanish affair against Athletic Bilbao.
Other ties feature Shakhtar Donetsk against Anderlecht, Basel v Sevilla, who are looking to win this competition for the third year running, and Villarreal v Bayer Leverkusen.

Draw in full (ties to be played 10 & 17 March)

Shakhtar v Anderlecht, Basel v Sevilla, Villarreal v Bayer Leverkusen, Athletic Bilbao v Valencia, Liverpool v Manchester United, Sparta Prague v Lazio, Borussia Dortmund v Tottenham Hotspur, Fenerbahce v Braga.

[Guardian.com]


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Real Winner of the Democratic Debate: President Obama   More Sanders Snarks as Democratic Debate Gets Heated Democratic Candidates Court Black Voters at Debate Clinton and Sanders Walk a Careful Line on Women at Debate There were only two Democrats on the debate stage in Milwaukee on Thursday night, but they should have brought a third podium for President Obama. Coming back from a landslide defeat in the New Hampshire primary, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doggedly criticized Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on areas where he’d split with Obama while duct-taping herself to the President’s legacy on issues as varied as foreign policy , health care and Wall Street . Sanders, for his part, did his best to hold his ground, justifying his criticism of the President and presenting himself as a change agent while pointing out Clinton’s own differences with Obama. Their heated exchanges over Obama’s legacy reflected how the President has b...
Post a Comment
Read more

The country’s problem is our problem- Buhari

Nigeria President Muhammad Buhari gave this reminder on Tuesday in Abuja while breaking his Ramadan fast with a delegation of Islamic clerics. Mr. President said that Nigerians do not have any other country to call theirs except Nigeria and should therefore work and pray for it to prosper.
Post a Comment
Read more

2018 #Big Brother Naija makes N5.1 billion

Big Brother Naija winner alongside CeeCee and Nina. [Photo credit: BBNaija official Instagram page] The just-concluded third season of the reality TV show, Big Brother Naija “Double Wahala”, has made N5.1billion from viewers, a PREMIUM TIMES analysis shows. The host of the show, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, revealed that over 170 million votes were cast in the course of the season, 30 million of it coming in the final week. Based on how the BBNaija game works, viewers were asked to cast votes for their favourite housemates to keep them in the house as the housemate with the highest votes would win. The cost of voting was N30. This shows that BBNaija made a total of N5.1billion from viewers votes alone and 17.6 per cent of sum (N900 million) came in the final week of the show. When compared to the amount made from votes, the winner took home a meagre 0.88 per cent of the sum in a N45 million package containing N25 million in cash, a new SUV worth N12 million, a complete home ent...
Post a Comment
Read more