The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Liverpool FC

  • Football fans urge S/Eagles to emulate Liverpool spirit at AFCON

    Football fans in Ilorin have called on the Super Eagles of Nigeria to emulate Liverpool FC’s spirit in the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Egypt scheduled for June.

    The fans told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews on Wednesday that the Eagles need to believe in their ability and conquer Africa just as Liverpool shocked Barcelona in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final.

    NAN reports that Liverpool outclassed Barcelona 4-0 with an extraordinary performance at Anfield, Liverpool, England, on Tuesday night to eliminate the Catalan giants in the competition, after being 3-0 down in the first leg.

    A soccer fan, Mr Segun Gbadebo, said the Super Eagles must emulate the spirit of the Liverpool players and play with determination to shock their African opponents in Egypt.

    “Everything is possible in football. The Super Eagles must learn from Liverpool by believing in their ability and do the impossible in June,’’ Gbadebo said.

    Another soccer fan, Joseph Ibenjo, said the Liverpool spirit is what he expects from the Eagles in AFCON.

    “After the 3-0 humiliation at Camp Nou last week, we all thought it was over; not until Liverpool pulled a miraculous surprise when they humbled Barcelona with four unreplied goals,’’ he said

    On his part, Mr Kayode Oguns, said: “Super Eagles also need the fighting spirit as demonstrated by Liverpool.

    Read Also: Liverpool’s victory hailed as the `Miracle of Anfield’

    “We need to play with passion and pull down giants as seen on Tuesday.

    “AFCON should be Super Eagles’ birth right. We can win it till our trophy cabinet is full.

    “We need to play like the Liverpool players and conquer Africa in June.’’

    Usman Balogun advised the Super Eagles to watch video clips of Liverpool’s performance against Barcelona.

    “Gernot Rohr must show and analyse the clips of the match with his players. It is very necessary to help the team spirit,’’ he said.

    Another football fan, Abiodun Odediran, called on Nigerians to support and pray for Super Eagles during the AFCON in Egypt.

    “Even the Liverpool fans are worth emulating, not only the players.

    “We need to copy the spirit of the Liverpool fans during matches to push the Eagles to victory,’’ he said.

    NAN reports that the Super Eagles are drawn in Group B with Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar for the 2019 AFCON billed to hold in Egypt from June 21 to July 19.

    NAN

  • Liverpool’s victory hailed as the `Miracle of Anfield’

    Liverpool’s stunning 4-0 Champions League demolition of Barcelona naturally dominated the front and back pages of British newspapers on Wednesday with most going on a similar theme to the Daily Mail’s splash: “Miracle of Anfield”.

    “An Anfield miracle transcribed from the pages of pure fantasy,” read the headline of the match report in The Independent, while The Guardian led with “Out of this world”.

    The Merseyside club’s sensational victory over what some pundits described as one of the best sides of the modern era allowed them to overturn a 3-0 deficit from the first leg of their semi-final.

    There were some suggestions that Liverpool had topped the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’, when the club similarly overturned a three-goal deficit to beat AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final to win their fifth European title.

    European fixtures at Anfield have had a special atmosphere going back a lot further than that and some suggested the noise generated by a packed house combined with Juergen Klopp’s aggressive side had unsettled the Spanish champions.

    “This is Liverpool’s gift: to rip up what you thought you knew about football and footballers, to take you — mentally and physically — to a place you don’t know and never wanted to go,” Jonathan Liew wrote in The Independent.

    There was plenty of praise for the spirit and self-belief that Klopp has fostered in his team, the German even forgiven for using an expletive when praising his players after the match.

    “Juergen Klopp makes Liverpool believe they can do the impossible,” wrote Matt Dickinson in The Times. “No one minded when Juergen Klopp dropped the f-bomb live on television.

    “After this, he could have stripped off and run around Anfield with his pants down and it would all have seemed part of his manic Germanic charm. With that grin and this football, he can get away with anything.”

    There was plenty of praise as well for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quick-thinking from a corner that caught the Barcelona defence napping and set up the decisive fourth goal for stand-in striker Divock Origi.

    “With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators,” Barney Ronay wrote in The Guardian.

    “A Champions League season that had seemed to be zeroing in on another coronation for Lionel Messi had been wrenched, gleefully, the other way.

    It will instead be Liverpool in Madrid on the first day of June for another shot at the ultimate.”

    The website of Spanish sports daily AS led with a quote from Argentine forward Messi in their headline “It was a horror movie”, while rival publication Marca’s edition splashed “Barcelona fail epically at Anfield”.

    After Klopp and his players had stood, some in tears, in front of The Kop to celebrate the win with a rendition of the club anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, it was left to The Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel to point out that the job was not yet done.

    “One had the feeling this was the moment he had been working towards since the day he set foot on Merseyside,” he wrote of Klopp.

    “This spirit. This togetherness. This performance. This passion, this emotion: it was all here, every last drop of what he wanted to achieve.

    “And yet, there is still such a long way to go.”

    Liverpool face either Tottenham Hotspur or Ajax Amsterdam in the final on June 1.

    Reuters/NAN

  • Liverpool vs FC Barcelona: Coutinho, Suarez ready for frosty Anfield reception

    Brazil’s Philippe Coutinho might be in line for a strange double on Tuesday night, as he was whistled by some FC Barcelona supporters at the Camp Nou.

    Now, he may well be booed by Liverpool FC fans at Anfield.

    He goes back to Liverpool where he played for five years.

    If he is not given a good welcome, it will match the send-off he received from FC Barcelona supporters when he was taken off in the first leg.

    Ousmane Dembele’s injury in the game against Celta Vigo at the weekend means Coutinho will almost certainly start against the team he left in January 2018.

    FC Barcelona will defend a 3-0 lead from last week’s first leg, and there will be no love lost during the game for the player.

    This is a player who chose to leave Jurgen Klopp’s project just under a year and a half ago to join Lionel Messi and company at FC Barcelona.

    Coutinho has struggled to win favour with FC Barcelona fans this season.

    He played well against Manchester United in the second leg of the quarter-finals and scored.

    Read Also: Suarez, Messi rekindling magic as favoured victims Celta await

    But he soured what had been his best Nou Camp performance in a FC Barcelona shirt that night by putting his fingers in his ears when celebrating.

    It was a protest at what he saw as a lack of respect and patience from supporters.

    But it made things worse and in the next home game he was whistled when taken off against Real Sociedad.

    The recriminations seemed to have been forgotten in the next home game when he hit the bar with one free-kick and played well against Levante as FC Barcelona won the league.

    But when he was taken off by coach Ernesto Valverde against Liverpool, there were more jeers and whistles from home supporters.

    FC Barcelona captain Lionel Messi stuck up for the Brazilian in his post-match interview.

    He said: “It’s ugly that they whistle a team-mate like this. We are all in this together. We have to be united to the end because we are close to our objective now.”

    Messi is not the only player to have come out in support of Coutinho.

    After his fingers-in-ears protest, Luis Suarez said: “The smallest thing that you do — and what Philippe did the other day was tiny — gets magnified.”

    Suarez will also be going back to Liverpool for the first time in a competitive game since he left the club in 2014.

    He celebrated his goal against them at the Camp Nou, although as he made his way back to the centre-circle there was also an apology.

    It was aimed to the away fans high in the Camp Nou.

    Suarez and Coutinho were team-mates when Liverpool so nearly won the English Premier League (EPL) under Brendan Rodgers in the 2013/2014 season.

    Now they stand on the brink of a potential treble in Spain.

    It would be the second of Suarez’ career at FC Barcelona, after he also managed it in his first season with the Catalans.

    The Uruguayan and the Brazilian were close friends at Liverpool and still have former team-mates, such as Jordan Henderson, in the current Liverpool line-up.

    There will be no love lost on Tuesday and that may also extend to the stands where Liverpool supporters might forget their fondness for two former sons, if only for 90 minutes.

    NAN

     

  • Firmino should be fit to face Barcelona-Klopp

    Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino, who missed Friday’s 5-0 Premier League win over Huddersfield Town, will be fit to face Barcelona on Wednesday, Manager Jurgen Kloop has stated.

    He expressed the optimism despite revealing the striker has a small muscular tear.

    The Merseysiders, who have moved back to the top of the Premier League table, take on the Spanish giants in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal at the Nou Camp and the loss of Firmino would be a significant one.

    The 27-year-old Brazilian was replaced by Daniel Sturridge in the Liverpool lineup on Friday after picking up a muscle injury in training on Thursday.

    READ ALSO: Salah, Mane earn braces to send Liverpool top of EPL again

    “Bobby trained yesterday completely normally. It was not high-intensity we just had to work on set-pieces a little bit and here and there a couple of things,” said Klopp.

    “I didn’t see it in training, it happened in the last situation of training and he felt a muscle a little bit. Now the official diagnosis is he has a small tear in a small muscle, so apart from the word ‘tear’ everything else is positive.

    “It is Bobby, so he might be ready for Wednesday, but we obviously don’t know in this moment. Because it is him, it’s rather likely that [he will be] than not, but we will see.

    “So, of all the bad news you can get it is pretty much the best, but it’s still bad enough that he couldn’t play tonight.”

    Firmino has featured in 46 games for Liverpool this year in all competitions, scoring 16 goals with eight assists.

    Klopp also said Netherlands defender Virgil Van Dijk, who brought Anfield to a hush when he went to ground with an injury during the second half against Huddersfield, was fine.

    “No, nothing. I asked him, he said, ‘No, no, all good,” added Klopp.

  • No regrets if Liverpool lose out on league title-Klopp

    Liverpool will look to finish the season strongly so that they have no regrets if they lose out on the English Premier League (EPL) title to reigning champions Manchester City.

    The Merseyside club’s manager, Juergen Klopp, said on Thursday that they know they have done so well by giving their best and would not have any regrets.

    Liverpool trail league leaders Manchester City by one point with three games to go.

    With neither side facing a “top six’’ club in the run-in, Klopp hopes to take the title race right down to the wire.

    “There are three games left, and we want to win them,” Klopp told reporters ahead of Huddersfield Town’s visit on Friday. “Huddersfield, Newcastle United, Wolves. That’s the situation.

    “If we win it, we win it. If we don’t, there are no regrets as long as we give our best. If we win our next two games then the title will be decided on the final match day and that would be pretty special.”

    Liverpool are looking to win their first league title since 1990.

    But Klopp’s focus was on how this season has been a stepping stone for the Anfield side that will look to improve and compete for more titles in the future.

    “The club and the people are waiting for a long time for it,” Klopp added. “It’s rather surprising because last season we were 25 points behind (Manchester City at the end of the season).

    We have to carry on but only one team will be champion.

    “However the season ends up, it is only the first step. We’re not finished, not the finished article. We will carry on and we will see.

    “We don’t only play for being champion at the end of the season. Yes, it’s a big target and we are pretty close and have a chance, but it’s the first time, not the last time.”

    With the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final to be played at Barcelona next week, Klopp said he would not tinker with the line-up when they face Huddersfield.

    “This will be the last game I overthink anything,” Klopp said. “I will not push that preparation with a fresh line-up. We have enough time to recover for the next game. Barcelona has nothing to do with Friday night.”

    Four Liverpool players were named in the Professional Footballers’ Association’s (PFA) Team of the Year announced earlier on Thursday.

    Klopp however said more of his players deserved to be named in the team dominated by Manchester City.

    “From my point of view, there could have been four, five, six, maybe seven more players involved,” the German boss said. “For me, my team is team of the season anyway.”

    Reuters/NAN

  • AXA Mansard announces AXA partnership with Liverpool FC

    AXA Mansard, a member of the AXA Group, has announced that AXA is partnering Liverpool FC.

    According to statement made available to reporters in Lagos, AXA reignites its sponsorship strategy to join forces with one of the most famous names in sports.

    The multi-year deal with English Premier League legends Liverpool Football Club (“Liverpool FC”) sees AXA become the club’s Official Global Insurance Partner, the statement read.

    Commenting on the partnership,  AXA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Thomas Burbel said: “I am delighted to announce this long-term partnership with Liverpool FC, which comes at a particularly exciting moment for AXA as the Best Global Brand Ranking, announced by Interbrand today, recognised AXA as the number one insurance brand for the 10th year in a row.

    “Building on shared values, AXA and Liverpool FC will create innovative experiences for clients, partners and fans around the world, as well as making meaningful contributions to the local communities in which they both operate. Working closely with Liverpool FC’s players, manager, coaches and health professionals, AXA will also create unique and relevant content that will help support the shared goal of promoting a healthy lifestyle, delivering on the AXA brand purpose of empowering people to live a better life.”

    AXA Mansard Insurance  Brand and Communications Head, Mrs Nkiru Umeh noted that it is their way of identifying with the passion and energy of football fans both in Nigeria and all over the world, that reflects their passion to consistently provide quality products and services to their customers.

  • Liverpool agree club record deal for Keita

    Liverpool agree club record deal for Keita

    Liverpool FC of England on Monday agreed a club record deal to sign RB Leipzig’s Naby Keita, with the midfielder only moving to Anfield in July 2018.

    The Reds have agreed to pay the £48 million release clause which will allow the 22-year-old to move next summer, plus an undisclosed premium.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Keita had been one of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s primary targets this summer, but Leipzig have been refusing to sell.

    The deal will surpass the £35 million paid to Newcastle for Andy Carroll in 2011.

    RB Leipzig finished second behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga last season, meaning they qualified for the Champions League group stage.

    Liverpool had already had two offers for the Guinea international rejected this summer, with the second understood to be about £70 million.

    But now a compromise deal has been reached, with Leipzig keeping their prize asset this season and Liverpool getting the player next summer.

    The Reds have so far this summer signed winger Mohamed Salah from Roma for £34 million, full-back Andrew Robertson from Hull for £8 million and striker Dominic Solanke after his contract at Chelsea expired.

    The Anfield club are also prepared to test Monaco’s resolve to keep midfielder Thomas Lemar by offering to pay about £60 million before Thursday’s transfer deadline.

  • Liverpool withdraw Cameroon’s Matip from squad

     

    English Premier League side Liverpool FC on Sunday withdrew Cameroonian defender Joel Matip from their squad to face Manchester United because they were unsure about his international clearance.

    The 25-year-old Matip was named in Cameroon’s preliminary squad for this month’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Gabon, but the defender said he did not want to play.

    He was not listed in the final 23-man squad, but the Reds are seeking “clarity’’ from FIFA about his availability.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Germany-born Matip has not featured for Cameroon since September 2015.

    He was one of seven of their players who said they did not want to play at the tournament in Gabon, which started on Saturday and runs until Feb. 5.

    Another, West Brom full-back Alan Nyom, also failed to receive international clearance and did not feature in his side’s 4-0 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday.

    The Cameroon football association (FECAFOOT) can ask world governing body FIFA to suspend those players at club level for the duration of the event.

    Liverpool said FECAFOOT has failed to confirm whether centre-back Matip can continue to play club football.

    He has made 12 Premier League appearances since moving to Anfield from German side Schalke in the summer.

  • Chelsea tops EPL as Victor Moses delivers winning goal

    Chelsea tops EPL as Victor Moses delivers winning goal

    Chelsea Football Club on Saturday came from one goal down to end Tottenham Hotspur’s unbeaten Premier League record with a 2-1 victory.

    Liverpool and Manchester City were past Chelsea earlier in the day and fell behind in the 11th minute when Christian Eriksen became the first player to score past them in seven games.

    But Pedro Rodriguez’s glorious curler and a Victor Moses tap-in either side of half-time gave Chelsea a seventh successive win — their longest such run within one season since January to April 2007.

    Chelsea, who visit City next weekend, restored a one-point advantage over second-place Liverpool and left London rivals Tottenham seven points below them in fifth place.

    The victory propelled Antonio Conte’s soaring side back into top spot.

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  • Belgium national team cancel training after Brussels attacks

    Belgium national team cancel training after Brussels attacks

    The Belgium national football team have cancelled training on Tuesday after the deadly attacks in the capital Brussels, Sky sports reports.

    At least 21 people have been reported dead in the airport and metro blasts in a multiple fatalities after two explosions ripped through Zaventem Airport in Brussels in an apparent suicide attack while the third blast hit the Maalbeek Metro station in the city.

    A tweet from the Belgian team’s official account, @BelRedDevils, read: “#tousensemble, our thoughts are with the victims. Football is not important today. Training cancelled.”

    Similarly, Premier League players, including Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen and Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, have conveyed messages of alarm and support through Twitter.

    Belgium centre-back Vertonghen wrote: “Can’t believe I’m reading these things again…”, while Mignolet tweeted: “#Zaventem” in reference to the location of Brussels Airport.

    Belgium are due to host a friendly against Portugal next Tuesday at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.