Raphinha scores hat-trick in 100th appearance for Barca
Brazilian winger Raphinha celebrated his 100th appearance for FC Barcelona with a hat-trick goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League encounter on Wednesday night.
Liverpool have been handed a major injury boost ahead of their UEFA Champions League round-of-16 clash with Portuguese side FC Porto as Jurgen Klopp revealed that all his players save Giorginio Wijnaldum and Benjamin Woodburn will be in contention to start Tuesday’s game.
Klopp named a full-strength squad for the Reds’ Premier League tie with Newcastle United on the weekend, with goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane ensuring a routine win for the in-form Merseysiders.
And the German tactician was relieved to find that no fresh injuries came up in the aftermath of their 2-0 victory over the Magpies, just some knocks which he expected to heal in time for the visit of the Portuguese giants.
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“We had a few knocks after the game, an ankle here and a muscle there; not a muscle injury but dead legs and stuff like that. It was an intense game, so we need to wait a little bit. But, (there are) no major things so far that I heard about,” Klopp stated on the eve of his side’s clash at Anfield.
Considering Liverpool have a 5-0 advantage from the first leg, Klopp is widely expected to rotate for the continental clash, especially as a massive Premier League tie with Manchester United looms large on the horizon.
The Reds are effectively challenging for silverware on just one front, the UEFA Champions League, but the race for the top-four is still very much on and they are currently third in the league table, two points behind their arch-rivals.
With nine games left in the Premier League, United and Liverpool are front-runners to finish in second place behind runaway leaders Manchester City and Saturday’s victor at Old Trafford could well become the clear favourite to finish second.
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