Tonight sees the return leg of the Champions League Semi-Final in Rome, after Liverpool defeated AS Roma at Anfield last week, with a final score of 5-2, with Liverpool now bringing in a three goal advantage into tonight’s match. However, AS Roma overturned a three goal deficit against Barcelona in the quarter finals, in order to knock them out in the previous round, so by no means is this tie already over. Well, not yet, anyway.
Liverpool are coming off the back of some peculiar news, in that Jurgen Klopp’s assistant for seventeen years, Zeljko Buvac, has resigned and left the club for personal reasons, who is said to be the actual brains behind Klopp’s playing style. It leaves to be seen whether this will have any effect on the team’s performance tonight, as a place in the final against Real Madrid in Ukraine, awaits the winners at the final whistle.
Zeljko Buvac has mysteriously left the club ahead of tonight’s match, with rumours suggesting he could take the Arsenal vacancy next season. Credit: Fox Sports
Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich on home turf last night on aggregate, after a 2-2 draw, which went down to the wire, since if Bayern Munich would have scored another goal, it would have seen Bayern go through on away goals, but it remained 4-3 on aggregate in the end. Real Madrid ran out deserved winners overall and one wonders if they won’t make it a hat-trick of consecutive Champions League victories this year.
Tonight, Liverpool are expected to see out the tie, and it has been said that they won’t relent in their attacking style of play, with Klopp probably playing the same side as in last weeks match. Both Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold have recovered from minor knocks, but Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is out after his season ending injury in the previous tie, with Georginio Wijnaldum expected to take his place in midfield. Joe Gomez is also out with an injury, but Saido Mane is expected to be fit for the match, after recovering from a hamstring injury.
Can Mo Salah, the Egyptian King, can he do it again for Liverpool this evening? Credit: Sport Empire
AS Roma will have the tougher task of trying to attack from the start, whilst then also having to deal with Firmino, Salah and Mane on the counter attack, if they go gung-ho for Liverpool’s goal, as we suspect that they will. Which in essence will be a difficult feat to uphold for 90 minutes without conceding a goal. Since a single goal from Liverpool, would seal the tie for the Reds, sending them into the final, as we don’t really believe that AS Roma can actually score four goals tonight.
The Roma game plan will be hard to predict, apart from that they need to go out on the offensive right from the start, but with Edwin Dzeko and El-Shaarawy expected to start, the starting 11 line up, has more fire power than usual.
This is going to be a momentous match for both teams, but we fully expect Liverpool to come out on top overall, taking their place in the Champions League final on May 26th.
Our match predictions: Over 2.5 goals
Final Score: 2-2
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Featured Photo Credit: 20e45.com