Lille V Liverpool: Reds to make amends in France?

Lille V Liverpool

Thursday, 11^th March – 18:00 GMT (UEFA Europa League)

Matt’s Tip: Liverpool to WIN – 2.50 Bet365 & VCbet (LOST!)

Alternative: Both teams to score – 1.91 WilliamHill (LOST!)

Just three days after suffering defeat at the hands of Wigan Athletic, Rafael Benitez takes Liverpool to France for the first of two legs against a tricky Lille side who have been in pretty good knick this season. However, with the Reds boasting far greater European pedigree, Liverpool are the clear favourites to go through to the quarter-finals (1.40 Boylesports) although the bookies aren’t 100% sure Rafa’s men will be fully committed to their Europa cause on Thursday night, with Liverpool as big as 2.50 with Bet365 & VCbet to win in France.

It would appear we have more confidence in Liverpool snatching a vital away win in France, although more fool us after their abysmal display at Wigan on Monday night. In a fixture Liverpool were duly fancied to walk through (Wigan V Liverpool), yet again the Reds failed to impress, or even turn up for that matter, as they crashed to their ninth league defeat of the campaign at the DW stadium, and, in the process, dampening the spirit of the Liverpool camp.

It’s been a dreadful season for Liverpool, with their claims for winning the league a distant memory and now even a fourth place finish extremely unlikely, so a decent run in this competition is the only way they can make it up to their disgruntled fans, although even victory in the Europa League won’t fully amend the broken hearts around Merseyside. Rafaeal Benitez has spoken about the teams desire to delve deep into the Europa League, but it’s down to the players to back up his comments, something they’ve failed to do throughout most of the season, it has to be said. However, there is still no getting away from Liverpool’s superior quality within their ranks in comparison to Lille’s, with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, not only big names, are both fit and available for the trip to France, although neither played at all well on Monday.

Liverpool won’t play again until Monday night when they take on Portsmouth so they will have no excuses for fielding a weakened side for tomorrow’s clash in a fixture they could really do with winning after Monday’s nightmare result. The fans need cheering up, while the players need a big boost in confidence and victory in France just might do that, although a much improved performance from every single player is required if they are to do so.

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Lille will be missing a few key players, none more so than their top goalscorer in Europe, Gervinho. However, that hasn’t deterred the manager nor the players from dreaming of an historical win over one of Europe’s giants, with even the manager claiming his players are hungry for the win and won’t sit back and admire their more illustrious opponents from afar. No, they will instead look to play some attacking football of their on, and, of course, they know full well they need a big result at the Lille-Metropole stadium if they are to harbour realistic hopes of making the quarter-final draw, so we should be treated to some entertaining football if that’s the case.

The French side do, however, boast a very strong record at home this season, having lost just twice at the Lille-Metropole stadium back in Ligue 1. Moreover, they’ve won five of their six home encounters in the competition thus far, with only Valencia avoiding defeat in Lille in a 1-1 draw.

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While we fancy an away win for Liverpool, their defence has been far from convincing of late, all season in fact, so Lille should get their chances to at least score at home, if not bang in a few judging by Liverpool’s recent defensive displays. However, the news that they will try to attack their opponents does concern us as one thing Liverpool do well is exploit open spaces, especially if they can get Torres into space. Baring this in mind, we can see Liverpool catching Lille out on the break, especially if they land the first blow.

While we fancy an away win for Liverpool, their defence has been far from convincing of late, all season in fact, so Lille should get their chances to at least score at home, if not bang in a few judging by Liverpool’s recent defensive displays. However, the news that they will try to attack their opponents does concern us as one thing Liverpool do well is exploit open spaces, especially if they can get Torres into space. Baring this in mind, we can see Liverpool catching Lille out on the break, especially if they land the first blow.