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Europa League: Liverpool vs Hearts Preview

Liverpool, Aug 30: After coming through a narrow win in Edinburgh last week, Liverpool will aim to seal a place in the next round of the Europa League as Hearts visit Anfield on Thursday night.

Adam Webster's 78 minute own goal handed the Reds with a precious away goal at Tynecastle. The Scottish side will face a rejuvenated Liverpool team at Anfield after a fantastic performance against champions Manchester City on Sunday.

Due to the tight schedule, manager Brendan Rodgers will reshuffle his squad resting several key players like Luis Suarez, captain Steven Gerrard, defender Martin Skrtel and Glen Johson. Brazilian Lucas Leiva is sidelined for three months after suffering thigh injury.

New signing Nuri Sahin may come in for Lucas while Rodgers will keep in mind the home game against Arsenal and think about playing Joe Allen in the middle. Andy Carroll is set to miss out on the game due to his ongoing transfer speculation. The £35 million striker is linked with a move to West Ham united.

Hearts, who last shined at the European stage back in 1988-89 season of Uefa Cup (now Europa League) when they reached the quarter-final stage, would have to crank up their game to knock out the Reds. Last time around at this stage, Hearts went down 5-0 on aggregate against Tottenham.

Manager John McGlynn, with no injury concerns, is likely to retain the same squad which lost to Liverpool in the first-leg. But Hearts have won just 1 game in their previous five competitive fixtures.

Trivia: Liverpool last won the Uefa Cup in 2000-01.

Liverpool (4-3-3): Reina-Kelly, Carragher, Agger, Robinson-Spearing, Sahin, Adam-Assaidi, Sterling, Borini.

Hearts (4-3-3): MacDonald-Paterson, Webster, Zaliukas, Grainger-McGowan, Barr, Taouil-Novikovas, Sutton, Driver.

OneIndia News

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 15:49 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 24, 2017