Liverpool’s Champions League fate will be decided when they host Napoli in their final Group C match on Tuesday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s side know that they must win 1-0 or by a two-goal margin to qualify for the knockout stages, with Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain currently both ahead of them in the table.
Any kind of victory would be enough to take the Reds through if PSG falter away to Red Star Belgrade.
The first meeting between these two sides saw Lorenzo Insigne snatch a late victory for Napoli in September, a game in which Klopp felt his side were nowhere near their usual performance level.
The Reds lost all three of their away matches in the group stages but have won both of their home encounters so far.
Team news-wise, Dominic Solanke, Joe Gomez and long-term absentees Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Rhian Brewster appear to be the only players ruled out for Liverpool.
Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane all trained as normal on Monday following various injury issues in recent weeks and are all likely to be available for selection.
Napoli made a number of changes for their 4-0 win over Frosinone on Saturday and look set to return to the line-up that has worked so well for them in Serie A and in Europe this season.
The likes of David Ospina, Nikola Maksimovic, Raul Albiol, Mario Rui, Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens were all rested and are likely to start against Liverpool.
1. A return for Dejan Lovren?
In our own predicted line-up, we’ve tipped Klopp to make four changes from the Reds’ win over Bournemouth on Saturday.
We could see Dejan Lovren coming in for Joel Matip if he’s fit enough to start and should also expect Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson and Mane to be brought into the starting XI in place of James Milner, Fabinho and Naby Keita.
Napoli’s XI seems to be pretty nailed on providing everyone is fit. This XI has brought Ancelotti a lot of success this season and would allow Napoli to set up with two banks of four but retain a lot of speed in attack.
2. Milner to take Shaqiri’s spot?
The Times’ Paul Joyce has tipped James Milner to retain his place in the Liverpool XI at the expense of Shaqiri.
If Milner does play, it would be interesting to see whether Klopp opts to move away from the 4-4-1-1 system that is working so well for Liverpool in the league.
[via The Times]
3. Another start for Keita?
The Evening Standard’s Liverpool correspondent David Lynch has suggested that Naby Keita could be in line for a third consecutive start after impressing against Burnley and Bournemouth last week.
Matip gets the nod ahead of Lovren in this team.
Evening Standard’s predicted Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum, Keita; Mane, Salah, Firmino.
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