One Leipzig player has been singing the praises of a Liverpool rival, but he won’t be coming up against him tonight.
The Reds are back in Budapest to contest the second leg of this last-16 Champions League tie.
Liverpool won 2-0 during the away leg in the same stadium last month and they are big favourites to progress, despite their Premier League form.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are the champions of England but they’re not playing like it, having lost their last six games at Anfield to find themselves eighth in the table and seven points off a top-four finish – and 22 behind leaders Manchester City.
It’s been a horrible season for Liverpool and you could argue that the breaking point came back in October, when Virgil van Dijk was ruled out for the rest of the campaign with a knee injury.
Since then, plenty of other centre-backs have found themselves joining Van Dijk in the treatment room, but none as influential as the £75 million powerhouse, who finished second to Lionel Messi in the Ballon d’Or stakes as recently as 2019.
And 24-year-old Leipzig star Angelino has conceded that missing the Dutchman has been a massive loss for Klopp’s troops, who won this competition as well two seasons ago.
He told Sky Sports: “Obviously, he was very important for them at the back. He was so strong. In the end, they don’t have many changes. They have their very strong eleven.
“They did not win the Champions League and the Premier League for nothing. You cannot be perfect all the time but they have an unbelievable team, great qualities. Great quality up front and when they have Van Dijk at the back, he is unbelievable.”
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