Text here to move the logos across. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Hello and welcome to the official match thread for Thursday’s Europa League encounter between Udinese & Liverpool. The game is scheduled to be played at the Stadio Friuli on Thursday 6th December 2012 with a kick-off time of 6PM. ITV4 will be showing the game (Build-up begins at 5.30PM) & streams showing the game are normally posted before & during the game. Preview. The Europa League group stages come to a conclusion on Thursday & in Group A, there is still a lot to play for. Liverpool travel to Italy to face Udinese whilst Anzhi Makhachkala will travel to Bern to face BSC Young Boys. Anzhi Makhachkala have already qualified from Group A so whatever happens in Bern, they will be in the draw for the last 32. The group seems destined to be decided on the head-to-head record and not on goal difference. Not too sure why this is the case but it makes the permutations slightly more confusing to explain. Before I go into the various permutations, let’s have a look at the current table going into Thursday’s games. [table="width: 500, class: grid"] [tr] [td]Team Name.[/td] [td]Number Of Games Played.[/td] [td]Number Of Games Won.[/td] [td]Number Of Games Drawn.[/td] [td]Numbers Of Games Lost.[/td] [td]Goals Scored.[/td] [td]Goals Conceded.[/td] [td]Goal Difference.[/td] [td]Points.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Anzhi Makhachkala.[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Liverpool.[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]10[/td] [td]9[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]7[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]BSC Young Boys.[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]11[/td] [td]12[/td] [td]-1[/td] [td]7[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Udinese.[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]11[/td] [td]-4[/td] [td]4[/td] [/tr] [/table] That’s the current state of play in Group A. Here are the various permutations that will decide who qualifies from Group A: Anzhi Makhachkala. As I have already mentioned, Anzhi Makhachkala are through whatever happens on Thursday. The worst position they can finish is second if they lose at BSC Young Boys & Liverpool beat Udinese. These two results would mean Liverpool would top the group & Anzhi would finish second. Liverpool. Liverpool are currently second on the head-to-head record and a win in Italy against Udinese would see Liverpool go through and their finishing position would most likely be second. (Could finish 1st depending on the Young Boys/Anzhi result) A draw for Liverpool could also see them through but it would rely on Young Boys not winning at home to Anzhi. A defeat for Liverpool would see the Merseyside club go out of the competition. Even if Young Boys lost against Anzhi, their head-to-head record would then become better than both Liverpool & Udinese and Young Boys would qualify. BSC Young Boys. Young Boys would go through if they pick up a better result than Liverpool on Thursday evening. For example, if Liverpool drew & Young Boys were to win, Young Boys would progress ahead of Liverpool. Young Boys would also go through if both Young Boys & Liverpool lost as their head-to-head record becomes superior. Udinese. Udinese are already out and cannot qualify from the group. However, they still have a big part in the final standings of the group as they can have an effect on the battle between Liverpool & Young Boys for qualification. - So, those are the various permutations that are in place in Group A. A wide variety of differing permutations for Anzhi, Liverpool & Young Boys to contend them but for Liverpool, it’s very simple. Win and they qualify. With this in mind, Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, is expected to take a strong side to Italy to face Udinese and look to seal their qualification into the last 32 of the Europa League. Rodgers has spoken about the importance of the Europa League in the past and has mentioned how he is looking to secure qualification into the latter stages of the competition. This could have been secured in the last round of matches with a win over BSC Young Boys but that game finished in a 2-2 draw. That meant that the finishing positions in the group would be decided in the final round of matches. Liverpool now seems likely to take a strong-looking team to Italy including the likes of Martin Skrtel, Lucas Leiva, Steven Gerrard & Luis Suarez. Suarez will now be expected to play a significant part due to the domestic suspension he has received. Liverpool’s main striker picked up his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season and this means he will miss Liverpool’s Premier League game at West Ham United on Sunday. This means that he won’t be able to play until Liverpool’s next game which is a home game with Aston Villa on the 15th of December. With this enforced rest, it seems likely that Suarez will play on Thursday and then have a well-earned rest until the Aston Villa game on the 15th of this month. He will play in the middle of the attacking three with the likes of Suso & Oussama Assaidi battling it out for the wider positions beside Suarez. In midfield, Lucas Leiva could continue his passage to full fitness with some more minutes in the Liverpool midfielder. The Brazilian has had a difficult year with an ACL Knee Injury picked up in November of last year & a thigh injury in August of this year after recovering from the ACL Knee Injury picked up in November of last year! That will have been massively disappointing for Lucas but he returned to first-team action on the Saturday just gone with 88 minutes of football. He was a bit rusty (That is to be expected with Lucas having been out for that period of time) so some more minutes in Italy will help him get the match fitness higher and higher. Defensively, the likes of Jamie Carragher & Andre Wisdom could get playing time after playing significant parts of Liverpool’s Europa League campaign thus far. The home side, Udinese, will be massively disappointed with their Europa League campaign. They started off with a well-earned point at home to Anzhi Makhachkala but have dropped off since then. Two defeats to BSC Young Boys have ended their Europa League campaign even with a comeback victory against Liverpool! A 3-2 win at Anfield still wasn’t enough for Francesco Guidolin & his side and they are out even if they win on Thursday. They will want to end their Europa League campaign on a high and a victory over Liverpool would be a good end to a disappointing European campaign. If Udinese are to do well on Thursday, Antonio Di Natale will be a key player. The striker is simply outstanding. In his last 3 seasons, he has scored 29, 28 & 29 goals with 11 goals already this season! Excellent figures and the Italian international already has previous against Liverpool! He scored Udinese‘s first goal and the equaliser as Udinese took control of the game. The Italians then got 2 quick fire goals halfway through the second half to secure victory. Di Natale’s performance was an excellent one so Liverpool know all about him and will need to stop him if they are to have a chance of securing the victory they need to progress to the last 32. So, an important game in prospect. Liverpool need the victory to secure progress in this competition. Udinese cannot qualify but will not want to go out of the competition with a whimper and can still dictate who goes through. Sets it all up for a great game! You’ll find out what happens on the official match thread on the Not606 Liverpool board. Do join in. (That includes the guests who regularly read these threads! Sign up and get involved in the match chat.) Injury News. Udinese. Injury news is currently unavailable. Liverpool. Martin Kelly: ACL Knee Injury. Fabio Borini: Foot Injury. Suspension News. Udinese. No suspensions currently recorded. Liverpool. No suspensions currently recorded. Udinese 0 - 1 Liverpool Goalscorers: Liverpool... Jordan Henderson: 23rd minute. Udinese: Padelli - Faraoni Heurtaux Danilo - Pereyra Agyemang-Badu Reinthaler Armero - Fabbrini Di Natale SUBS: Brkic Benatia Berra Marsura Pinzi Frison Ranégie - Sent off: Giovanni Pasquale (79th minute) - Udinese Substitution: Giampiero Pinzi comes off to be replaced by Mehdi Benatia. (45th minute) Udinese Substitution: Mehdi Benatia comes off to be replaced by Max Reinthaler. (65th minute) Udinese Substitution: Mathias Ranégie comes off to be replaced by Antonio Di Natale. (85th minute) - Liverpool: Reina - Johnson Carragher Skrtel Enrique - Henderson Shelvey Allen - Downing Suarez Sterling SUBS: Jones Wisdom Coates Sahin Cole Assaidi Suso - Liverpool Substitution: Nuri Sahin comes off to be replaced by Jonjo Shelvey. (12th minute) Liverpool Substitution: Suso comes off to be replaced by Raheem Sterling. (71st minute) - YNWA.
Lets suggest some 11's. ----------------Reina------------------- -Wisdom--Skrtel-----Carragher--Downing- -------Henderson---Sahin--------------- ----------------Suso-------------------- -------Cole----------------Assaidi-------- ---------------Suarez-------------------- Bench: Jones, Coates, Allen, Shelvey, Gerrard, Enrique, Morgan. Priorities here are that we can keep a clean sheet and score a couple of goals, with out wearing the squad to thin for the weekend. Suarez, Cole and Downing all have goals in Europe already. Sahin has three goals from other competition. Assaidi is due one. Henderson will sit back in front of the back 4. Sterling needs resting, Morgan has looked better than Yesil IMO, the bench contains goal scorers.
Lost to these ****s in my europa league in my Ingolstadt career last night 3-2 **** these ****s, lets send a message and win with a solid 3-0 or 4-1 something like that.
Look no further than Mirallas and jelavic. Edit: actually don't ahve a clue when the last time either scored recently.
I'm going to say that suarez will start as he's out at the weekend/ I'm also going to go for the draw which 7/10 times will be enough here. if young boys beat anzhi fine that's their big whop (americanism alert) I just think rdogers is under too much pressure now to not pick a decent side seeing its the last game for a while so i kind of expect us to pick Jones (did nothing wrong and i think either will bench warm or get the euopa and fa cup games) Wisdom Skertl Agger Johnson Henderson Allen gerrard Sterling suarez enrique no more downing ever!.... i'm not sure if we'll pick our boy lucas mind.
When you say Gerrard is 'out', do you mean he's flown out, or he's 'out' as in he's not in the squad to face Udinese?
The official travelling party is now up on the website... Would have copied and pasted, but completely forgot.... Agger, Lucas and gerrard havent travelled..just about everyone else has....Coady makes up the numbers from the reserves.
Full team here - The squad in full is: Jones, Johnson, Enrique, Sahin, Suarez, Cole, Assaidi, Henderson, Coates, Downing, Carragher, Allen, Reina, Suso, Sterling, Shelvey, Coady, Skrtel, Wisdom.
if we look at this the possibilites at CB are endless. midifled not so much. sahin henderson shelvey thats the midfield 3 and maybe suso to come in. then up front god knows what will happen. I think it would be PERVERSE to play enrique at lw and downing at lb... i hope we either drop downing or stick in wide right. For me; reina johnson skertl coates enrique henderson allen sahin cole suarez assaidi. if we don't rest sterling soon we'll see an injury
