The Reds Must Rise from 2 Bad Results

Liverpool, Beritasatu.com – Liverpool has the ambition to return to leading the Premier League standings as the championship competition becomes increasingly fierce. They will host Crystal Palace at Anfield on Sunday (14/4/2024).

The draw with Manchester United last weekend saw the hosts overtaken by Arsenal on goal difference, while Palace itself is in 14th place with a record of five games without a win.

Liverpool are determined to win the title for the second time under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp before the coach moves at the end of the season.

The Reds were held to a draw by their eternal rival, Manchester United, last week. Having taken the lead in the first half through Luis Diaz, Liverpool fell behind after Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo turned things around with goals in the second half for the hosts. Mohamed Salah managed to rescue a point for Liverpool six minutes from time, converting a penalty won by Harvey Elliott.

Faced with a busy schedule towards the end of the season, Liverpool now enter an important match at the weekend after losing 3-0 at home to Atalanta on Thursday in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace travel to Liverpool aiming to derail Liverpool's title hopes and claim their first win over Liverpool since 2017, when they also visited Anfield in April and won 2-1.

In a dramatic match at Selhurst Park in December, Palace took the lead through Jean-Philippe Mateta, but Salah equalized for his opponents in the 76th minute and Harvey Elliott managed to steal all three points with an injury-time winner.

It was one of 15 defeats in 31 Premier League games this season for the Londoners, and their new coach Oliver Glasner has not managed to make any significant improvements since being appointed at the end of February, despite starting his tenure with a 3-0 win over Burnley at Selhurst Park.

Glasner has only collected two more points, with those results coming from two consecutive 1-1 draws against Luton Town and Nottingham Forest, before losing away to AFC Bournemouth and most recently losing 4-2 at home to Manchester City last weekend. after taking an early lead through Mateta and scoring a consolation goal through Odsonne Edouard late in the match.

Liverpool continue to struggle with a number of injury problems ahead of Sunday's game, with first-choice goalkeeper Alisson Becker unlikely to be ready for Sunday's game, although Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to come off the bench against Atalanta on Thursday and will be looking to start in right side of the back line.

Midfielder Thiago Alcantara will also remain absent along with centre-back Joel Matip, but Ibrahima Konate is available to partner Virgil van Dijk in central defense while Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones will be in contention to play. in midfield.

Luis Diaz and star man Mohamed Salah flank Darwin Nunez in a trio that has scored a total of 54 goals in all competitions this season. Diogo Jota, possibly available after recovering from injury.

Crystal Palace are also still missing goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, defenders Marc Guehi, Chris Richards and Rob Holding as well as midfielders Matheus Franca and Cheick Doucoure.

Palace may use an improvised formation of three defenders, Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen and midfielder Jefferson Lerma. Will Hughes and Adam Wharton will partner in midfield again.

Jean-Philippe Mateta and Odsonne Edouard will compete to lead the attack, with Mateta likely to get a start after scoring his seventh goal of the season in the last game, while danger man Michael Olise will hope to join him and Eberechi Eze in attack after only being a substitute behind Jordan Ayew in the last match.