Leon Likes: Man United vs. Liverpool
The18's Leon the Chameleon predicts soccer matches by choosing which cricket to eat. This week's EPL matchup is between Man United and Liverpool.
The18's Leon the Chameleon predicts soccer matches by choosing which cricket to eat. This week's EPL matchup is between Man United and Liverpool.
There were a lot of Liverpool vs Bayern Munich highlights from the Champions League Round of 16 first-leg match on Tuesday. Surprisingly, none of them included goals.
Neither team could find a way to break the deadlock as the teams settled for a 0-0 draw at Anfield ahead of a return trip to Allianz Arena in Munich on March 13.
That the match finished scoreless came down to a combination of brilliant last-ditch defending and scuffed opportunities. The highlight of the match, however, was neither — just some really great, unwitting teamwork.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was his calm and collected self in his most recent press conference, especially since he revealed that Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial will be injured for some important games.
Martial has a groin injury while Lingard has a hamstring issue.
During the last few months of his topsy turvy tenure and Manchester United, Jose Mourinho was subject to a number of rumors surrounding his sacking — Zidane replacing him, players threatening to leave unless he was ousted, the whole Paul Pogba ruckus, etc.
Challenging for the lead in the Premier League and home to the best defense in the top flight so far this season, Liverpool fans are once again dreaming of lifting the league trophy. The last Liverpool title in 1989-90 ended two decades of dominance over the English league by Liverpool.
In the nearly 30 years since, the Merseyside club has finished second four times and as low as eighth three times. Now four years into the Jurgen Klopp project, and on the back of the owners funneling in record sums into the team, Liverpool is poised to challenge once again.
Serie A doesn’t get the same attention that it used to anymore, especially when big clubs like Inter, AC Milan and Roma have been losing the Serie A title to Juventus year after year. On top of that Juventus is the only Italian club regularly advancing to the later stages of the Champions League every year.
As a result, TV coverage of Serie A has shifted to other countries. Because of the TV deals with the Premier League, LaLiga and Bundesliga, a lot of interesting information can slip through the cracks.
It’s fair to say that Liverpool did not enjoy Monday night's match against West Ham.
Going 1-0 up after 22 minutes through Sadio Mané, Liverpool struggled to clinch an important victory in the Premier League title race. Michail Antonio scored just six minutes later, and Liverpool could not respond.
West Ham on the other hand, should be happy the performance against Liverpool was a lot better than in recent matches and against the league leaders no less. West Ham’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini, was less than impressed with Liverpool’s goal and with Jurgen Klopp.
In the soccer world, one of the best sights for sore eyes is the return of the Champions League.
Sometimes, watching Champions League teams playing league cup matches against weak opposition can be really dull after a while. For example, Manchester City’s 9-0 drubbing of Burton Albion a few weeks ago. In a lot of ways, European soccer without Champions League becomes kind of monotonous. At some point between the last Champions League group stage match and the start of the Round of 16, soccer fans will be wondering when the tournament will start up again.
If you’ve paid attention to internet trends over the past few days or so, you will notice something known as the #10YearChallenge. The basic premise of it is that people post pictures of themselves from 2009 and another from 2019 to show the world how much they’ve changed — in appearance or otherwise.
Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool has become one of the most exciting teams to watch in the world. The club has fantastically prolific forwards, indefatigable midfielders, impressive defenders and a fearless goalkeeper, not to mention Bobby Firmino and his no-look goal-scoring prowess. At times, it’s almost impossible not to find joy when the Reds are on TV.