Thursday afternoon sees Liverpool take part in the Europa League for the first time in seven years and first up is a trip to Linz, Austria to take on Bundesliga club LASK. We’ve previewed the tie and given you our best bets.
Liverpool (2/7) appear to have a relatively straightforward progression in Group E, with LASK (15/2), Toulouse and Union St. Gilloise ahead of them.
Jurgen Klopp will obviously be hugely disappointed not to be in UEFA’s premier competition but will have marked this down as a trophy that the Reds can win, with their last triumph in the competition way back in 2000/01.
Liverpool are on a real tear right now, extending last season’s unbeaten run to 16 games, with four wins and a draw in the Premier League this campaign, leaving them in 3rd spot in the table.
Despite falling behind to a Hwang Hee-Chan opener, the Reds fired back with three second half goals to maintain their impressive momentum.
LASK are also in 3rd in the Austrian Bundesliga, after four wins, two draws and a loss, with their most recent result also a 3-1 away win, at Klagenfurt.
Their best-ever performance in this competition was a run to the last 16, in 2019/20, before they were smashed 7-1 on aggregate to a certain Manchester United.
Team news:
Thomas Sageder is without three players, all of whom are suffering from ACL injuries, in Tobias Anselm, Yannis Letard and Adil Taoui, as well as Lenny Pintor who has suffered a muscle injury.
Liverpool are still without Thiago Alcantara and this game looks to have come too soon for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is recovering from a hamstring injury. Virgil van Dijk has served his two match suspension and could slot straight back into the back-line here.
Liverpool to win to nil – 5/4
The Reds have had a hard time keeping a clean sheet this year but here they face a much weaker opponent and have Virgil van Dijk back to bolster the defence.
LASK lost 3-0 to Spurs and 5-0 to Man United in recent years and I think this could be a similar scoreline.
Diogo Jota to score first – 9/2
With Liverpool riding high in the Premier League, it looks highly likely that Klopp will shuffle the pack here and give some fringe players a look in.
The man tasked with leading the line, as the likes of Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo are rested, will be Diogo Jota, who has just two starts from five Premier League games thus far.
Jota has been blighted by serious injuries in the last 18 months, which has put a bit of a pause on what was looking like a wonderful Anfield career.
When Jota starts, he is a prolific scorer, with 23 goals in 42 starts in the last 2 seasons. He should get plenty of chances here.
