Liverpool face Villarreal in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday evening as they look to continue their quest towards a historic quadruple.
With all due respect to Villarreal, the Reds couldn’t ask for a much better semi-final draw, the Yellow Submarine sit seventh in La Liga, and the Merseyside club come into this one as strong favourites.
However, as we should all know by now, there’s no such thing as an easy semi-final draw. Villarreal got this far by eliminating Juventus and Bayern Munich, and if they can claim one more scalp, they will be in a Champions League final.
Jurgen Klopp will know that Unai Emery’s side are no pushovers, and with that in mind, we’ve had a go at predicting Liverpool’s starting XI for this one.
We expect Klopp to revert back to what he seems to believe is his strongest XI at the moment.
The Liverpool boss trusted this XI to start against Manchester City in the league, and we expect the same team to be fielded in another crunch clash.
The defence is exactly what you might expect it to be. Klopp may have a bit of a selection headache when it comes to choosing between Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip, but we expect the more-experienced Matip to get the nod in such a vital game.
The midfield trio of Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson are once again trusted in the middle of the park, despite Naby Keita’s recent good performances.
Diogo Jota has been a star for Liverpool this season, but we’re expecting the new-look front three of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz to start in this one.
Liverpool are just two games away from another Champions League semi-final, and we think this is the XI Klopp will trust to get the job done.
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