Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has delivered a damning prediction for Liverpool’s Champions League semi final second leg clash with Barcelona on Tuesday night.
The Reds go into the game hoping to somehow reverse a 3-0 first leg deficit. Nicholas, though, believes former Liverpool man Luis Suarez will revel in a sense of calm on the way to a 2-1 away win at Anfield.
“It was a massive blow with Mohamed Salah going off injured against Newcastle,” he wrote on the Sky Sports website. “I believe Roberto Firmino could have been the man here, but I honestly cannot see it now. The atmosphere will be magnificent but when Barcelona get in front of those audiences, it is like they are putting on an exhibition.
“Luis Suarez will be calm for the first time in his career as they are in the driving seat. Liverpool will appreciate this performance from both their side and Barcelona. Lionel Messi turned up against Tottenham and I think he will feed off that type of atmosphere again. It will be a counter-attack exhibition and Messi will score again.”
OPINION
This is obviously going to be an incredibly difficult evening for Liverpool. Barcelona know they have a three goal advantage in the bag and that they can sit back and absorb the inevitable Reds’ attacks if they so choose. It’s not normally in their nature to do that, but Ernesto Valverde may send his team out to do a job on Liverpool and, as Nicholas says, hit them on the counter attack. It’s going to be so tricky for Jurgen Klopp’s team to manage trying to score four unanswered goals as well as ensuring that Messi, Suarez and co. don’t throttle them on the counter. It’s an almost Herculean task, one that even the most ardent of Liverpool’s followers will admit is probably a lost cause. Obviously everybody cites the miracle in Istanbul, but the Reds will be trying to keep out the best player football has ever seen while scoring at least three goals and must do so without Salah and Firmino. It’s going to be a taxing evening for those on Merseyside, that’s for sure.
