Confirmed: Liverpool & Celtic’s possible Champions League opponents

on Thursday, August 3, 2017

Champions League qualification, round three

Friday will be a huge day for both Liverpool and Celtic.

Both clubs will be in the mix for the Champions League third round qualification draw.

Celtic booked their spot in the round thanks to a 1-0 aggregate win over Rosenborg. The match was settled by a fine solo strike from James Forrest.

As for Liverpool, they parachute into the competition having finished last season in fourth place in the Premier League.

If Liverpool and/or Celtic win the two-legged ties, they’ll book their spots in the UCL group phase.

If they lose, they’ll drop into the Europa League group phase instead.

Possible opponents confirmed

So who could Liverpool face in the UCL third round?

ESPN have looked into the issue, to reveal the five clubs would the Reds could be paired with. Readers are told the following:

Sevilla, Napoli and Liverpool were already certain to be seeds in the league route — the half of the draw for clubs who qualified but did not win their domestic championship — before this week’s games, and are now joined by CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon.

They will be kept apart in the draw and paired against one of the five unseeded clubs: FCSB (Steaua Bucharest), Young Boys, Nice, Hoffenheim and Istanbul Basaksehir.

As for Celtic, the Scottish champions can face one of the five following teams: Qarabag, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, Slavia Prague, Astana or NK Rijeka.

The matches will be played on August 15-16 and 22-23.

                       .............This is Anfield

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Virgil van Dijk continues standoff with Southampton to get Liverpool move

Virgil van Dijk has continued his standoff with Southampton as the Dutchman looks to move away from the south coast club this summer.

Adam Leitch of the Daily Echo reports that Southampton were hopeful that van Dijk would accept the club’s decision not to sell him and reintegrate him with his teammates upon their return to training in England after a camp in France.

However, the Dutchman has told Saints that he has not had a change of heart, “leading the club to inform him that they are also standing firm.”

With just 10 days to go until Southampton’s first Premier League game of the season against Swansea, Pellegrino has a real dilemma on his hands.

He now needs to prepare for the first game of the season, and perhaps more, with the knowledge that his captain and best player won’t be available.

Van Dijk is giving no indication that he is going to back down but then again, neither are Southampton who are just as determined to keep the Dutchman as he is to leave the club.



Although he still has five years remaining of a six-year contract, van Dijk is desperate to leave the club. Adam Leitch writes, “At this stage, neither side appears to be sure exactly how this will play out.”

It’s a tricky situation for all parties involved, Liverpool included. As much as the Reds have been painted as the villains in this scenario after their ‘tapping up’ antics, the Anfield outfit are heading into the new season without having bought a new centre-half and their pursuit of van Dijk is an extremely risky one.

Although Saints are determined to hold onto van Dijk, the situation doesn’t look promising for them. With their captain on strike a week and a half away from the new season, it’s certainly a situation most managers would prefer to avoid.

On the matter, Leitch writes, “they [Southampton] have an asset worth £60m or more, who is probably also the best player in the squad, effectively doing nothing of any constructive use to them, and all the while how it affects spirit in the dressing room remains a key concern for Pellegrino.”


With the month of August underway and the Premier League season creeping ominously close for both Liverpool and Southampton, it will be an interesting saga to watch unravel for the neutral to see where van Dijk lands up.

In all honesty, my best bet would be that van Dijk will end up at Liverpool unless he has a change of heart which seems wholly unlikely.

On that note, if van Dijk continues refusing to train and play for Southampton, Pellegrino may be left with no choice but to sell the player or let him rot in the reserves and for a business-savvy club like Southampton, that’s not an option.

                        ...................This is Anfield

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 Markovic free to leave Liverpool, says Klopp

publish 23-07-2017

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Lazar Markovic is free to leave the Premier League club.
Published1 hour ago
Lazar Markovic can find a new club as he does not have a future at Liverpool, says manager Jurgen Klopp.

The winger has failed to make an impression in his three years at Anfield since a £20million move from Benfica.

Markovic spent time on loan at Sporting CP and Hull City last season and Klopp confirmed the 23-year-old is not in his plans for the new Premier League campaign.

"With Lazar, it's no secret that if he finds a club then we will negotiate," Klopp told the Liverpool Echo. "It was like this last year too.

"He's a really good player. I like him as a person. He's now fit and another one who is in the best shape since I've known him.

"Before he had problems with his groin but now he's good. There will be a club out there who needs him."

Watford are among the clubs linked with signing Markovic, with Marco Silva reportedly keen to reunite with the winger after he scored two Premier League goals on loan at Hull last season. with Marco Silva reportedly keen to reunite with the winger after he scored two Premier League goals on loan at Hull last season.