Chronicle EditorLONDON. – Shell-shocked after their capitulation against Sevilla and having been thrashed in two big English Premier League soccer clashes this season, Liverpool have their backs to the wall ahead of Chelsea’s visit today.
Liverpool’s horizons were clear in the 30th minute of Tuesday’s game at Sevilla in the Champions League, with Jurgen Klopp’s side 3-0 up and cruising towards the last 16. But Sevilla staged a second-half fightback, capped by Guido Pizarro’s 93rd-minute equaliser, to leave Liverpool’s knockout phase hopes in the balance and blacken the mood around their Melwood training base.
“It feels like we lost the game,” Klopp conceded after the 3-3 draw. That’s our business, that’s our life. We have to start preparing for Chelsea pretty much immediately. We cannot change it. Everybody wants to change it, but it’s not possible.”
Sharpening Liverpool’s sense of frustration will be the knowledge that prior to their unravelling at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Klopp’s men appeared to have turned a corner.
They have won their last three league games – scoring 10 goals and conceding only one – and had taken command of their Champions League group with a 3-0 win over Maribor.
Events in Seville, however, revealed the soft underbelly previously glimpsed in September’s 5-0 drubbing at Manchester City and last month’s 4-1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur remains an issue.
Fixtures
(all 5pm unless otherwise stated)
Today: Newcastle United v Watford; Swansea City v Bournemouth; Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion; Crystal Palace v Stoke City; Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion; Liverpool v Chelsea (7:30pm).
Tomorrow: Southampton v Everton (3:30pm); Burnley v Arsenal (4pm); Huddersfield Town v Manchester City (6pm). – AFP
Online Reporter