Lille vs Liverpool
Lille will be hosting Liverpool in their UEFA Europa League round of 16 opener in France for the 1st leg. It will certainly be one of the tightest games in the last 16. Liverpool are one of the surviving teams that made it to the last 16 via. the champions League while Lille have got to this stage through their own merits. Both teams will be looking for a safe passage to the next round.
The French team are looking forward to challenge themselves after they eases past the Danish champion, FC Copenhagen, 6-2 on aggregate over the two legs of the last 32 in the Europa League. Lille hardly broke a sweat and looked convincing in the last round. On Thursday, they might have to put up their guard as they host the famous red shirts five times European Cup winners from Merseyside on Thursday. Lille managed to draw 1-1 away against Saint-Etienne and that will keep them 5th in the Ligue 1. The French side will hope that Ben Arfa will come well on Thursday as he does well in the European scenes.
FC Liverpool will cross the channel to meet Lille for a place in the semifinals in the Europa League. The Reds are no strangers in the latter stages of European competitions and last time they got this far in this competition, it was back in the 2001/02 season where they were crowned winners. This is the last call for Liverpool if they want some silverware this season, they have lost pace in the premiership, losing to Wigan 1-0 on Monday, out of the of FA Cup and League Cup so the Europa League could redeem much of a lost season for Liverpool. Manager Rafa Benitez will be see to that both Gerrard and Torres will be fit for action and hopefully take a good result back to Anfield for next week’s encounter. Liverpool are slowly picking up pace as their most of their key members are fit to fight for the rest of the campaign.
Lille will meet Liverpool for the first time ever in their history and what an important one it is. Liverpool might be favorites to go through to the next round but it will be a tricky first leg encounter. Lille are a good home team and certainly many teams found it hard to break the Frenchmen down on foreign soil. Liverpool will be cautious and they do have some defensive selection problem at the back so expect a draw at least from Liverpool
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