PREVIEW: LIVERPOOL V
MANCHESTER UNITED
How to follow the match: Thursday’s Europa
League last-16, first-leg clash at Anfield kicks off
at 20:05 GMT and is being screened live in the UK
on BT Sport. Fans can follow the action via
ManUtd.com’s match blog and on Twitter
( @ManUtd ). MUTV’s Match Day Live programme
starts at 19:00 GMT and the club’s official
television channel will show the game in full at
midnight.
Scene-setter : This is a historic first meeting in
European competition between these famous old
rivals. The Reds are looking to bounce back from
Sunday’s disappointing Barclays Premier League
defeat to West Bromwich Albion by securing a
positive result on Merseyside to take back to Old
Trafford for next week’s return leg. And with a
Champions League place on offer for the winners
of the Europa League, this is a competition both
sides are taking very seriously.
Form guide : United’s reversal at The Hawthorns
ended a run of four successive wins in all
competitions and left the Reds in sixth place in the
table , three points behind fourth-placed Manchester
City, having played a game more. Liverpool are in
decent form: they’re unbeaten over 90 minutes
since going down 2-0 at leaders Leicester City on 2
February and have responded to their recent
penalty shoot-out defeat to Manchester City in the
Capital One Cup final by winning their last two
league games – 3-0 over City and, with a stoppage-
time Christian Benteke spot-kick, 2-1 at Crystal
Palace. Louis van Gaal’s men have triumphed in
the last four encounters with Liverpool, including
both of this season’s league fixtures ( 3-1 at Old
Trafford and 1-0 at Anfield ). United have played 22
domestic cup matches against the Merseysiders
over the years, winning 11, drawing four and losing
seven.
Latest team news : Antonio Valencia could be on
the bench but is not considered fit enough to play
90 minutes, while Bastian Schweinsteiger has
resumed training this week. Marouane Fellaini , Phil
Jones and Ashley Young may be back in action
later this month; Wayne Rooney, Will Keane and
Luke Shaw remain sidelined. Jesse Lingard is
suspended, Adnan Januzaj is cup-tied, having
played in the Europa League for Borussia Dortmund
while on loan earlier in the season, and Tim Fosu-
Mensah is ineligible. Liverpool are without Lucas
and long-term injury victims Danny Ings and Joe
Gomez.
View from the dressing room: "Since I have been
at Manchester United, we have faced Liverpool and
always won, so hopefully we can keep that run. I
can imagine what the atmosphere will be like. It’s
going to be great.” – Ander Herrera
View from the opposition : "Everyone’s excited.
Everyone loves to play European football, so it’s
going to be exciting against our rivals United. I
think we owe them from the Premier League
games. We need to take it to them, especially in
the first leg when we’re at home. We don’t want
them to get an away goal." – Nathaniel Clyne
Danger man : Brazilian attacker Roberto Firmino has
been in fine form of late, taking his goals tally for
the season to nine with Liverpool’s equaliser at
Selhurst Park last weekend. In 2016, no player has
been involved in more league goals (11 - seven
goals and four assists) than the 24-year-old
summer signing from Hoffenheim.
Sub-plot : United’s 1-0 win at Anfield in January,
which came courtesy of Wayne Rooney’s 78th-
minute strike, moved van Gaal 3-2 ahead in his
personal rivalry with opposite number Jurgen
Klopp. The pair each won two games while in
charge of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund,
between 2009 and 2011.
Betting : You can get odds of 61/20 on a United win
with official club partner Marathonbet, with
Liverpool priced at 28/25 and the draw at 59/25.
Van Gaal’s men are 87/10 to claim a repeat of
January’s 1-0 victory at Anfield. Visit manutd.com/
bet for more offers.
Rivals watch : In the pick of the other last-16 ties,
Tottenham Hotspur visit favourites Dortmund and
Athletic Club host Gary Neville’s Valencia in an all-
Spanish encounter.
Referee : Spanish official Carlos Velasco Carballo
has previously taken charge of four United games,
all in the Champions League: a 2-1 home win over
Marseille in the last 16 in March 2011, a 1-0 group-
stage defeat at Galatasaray in November 2012, the
1-1 home draw with Bayern in the 2013/14 quarter-
finals (in which Schweinsteiger scored and was
sent off for the Bundesliga giants), and this
season’s 1-1 group-stage draw at CSKA Moscow.