Venue: Petrovsky Stadium
Date: 14/02/13
Kick-Off: 17:00
Brendan Rodgers has indicated that he will field a strong side for Liverpool’s Europa League first knockout round tie away to Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg.
With the match taking place just three days after Liverpool lost at home to West Brom and the Reds due to play again on Sunday against Swansea, Rodgers admitted he will rest some of the club’s senior stars, but added:
“There certainly won’t be wholesale changes as there were in the earlier rounds because this is a competition that we want to be strong in and we’ve now only got two opportunities to get through to the next round”.
Two players that will not be involved however are new signings Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, who are both ineligible having already featured in Europe this season for Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively.
Zenit have won the Russian Premier League for two years running and they are currently third in their domestic league, behind CSKA Moscow and Liverpool’s Europa League group stage opponents, Anzhi Makhachkala. Zenit featured in the Champions League group stage earlier this season and dropped to the Europa League after finishing third in Group C, behind Malaga and AC Milan.
Due to a winter break in Russia, Zenit have not played a competitive game for more than two months – their last league fixture was a 1-1 draw with Anzhi on 10 December. Their squad includes Brazilian striker Hulk, former Benfica midfielder Axel Witsel and Portuguese international Danny, who is the club captain.
In the build-up to Thursday’s game, Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre admitted that he is concerned about the possibility of Liverpool’s players being racially abused in Russia. A group of Zenit supporters wrote an open letter in December proposing a manifesto that would see gay and non-white players excluded from the team and Ayre admitted he had written to both UEFA and Zenit to express his concerns. With the likes of Glen Johnson, Raheem Sterling and Andre Wisdom travelling to Russia, the Reds will hope that the match is not marred by off-the-field incidents.
[ad_pod id=’DFP-MPU’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
