With the final quarter to go in the 2023/2024 Season, Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool are still in contention of winning four titles at the end of the campaign after his EFL Cup-winning side reaching the UEFA Europa League Last 8 in addition to being the second-best team in the English Premier League, advancing to the FA Cup Quarterfinals. In their second-tiered European club football competition, Liverpool followed up their 5-1 win in the round of 16 first leg with another 6-1 demolition over Brian Priske’s AC Sparta Praha at Anfield, making it into the next part of the tournament via an insane 11-2 aggregate score over two legs of contests.
Liverpool Hit Six in the Europa League Round of 16 Second Leg
The Liverpool team led by Klopp were one foot into the Europa League Last 8 after the round of 16 first leg thanks to goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Darwin Núñez, Luis Díaz and Dominik Szoboszlai against AC Sparta Praha at epet ARENA a week ago. The monumental score line would have given the Reds enough reasons to rest players for this weekend’s FA Cup Quarterfinals matchup against archrivals Manchester United, but the German gaffer Klopp opted to maintain his starters’ fitness level going into the Super Sunday encounter in the domestic cup competition, and they repaid the manager’s faith in offering another huge result.
A quadruple of Liverpool’s six goals that sent them to the Europa League Last 8 were scored within seven minutes in the initial 45 minutes following Núñez’s, Bobby Clark’s, Mohamed Salah’s and Cody Gakpo’s strikes, The Uruguayan found the back of the net when Szoboszlai found him inside the penalty box, scoring his third goal in two legs against Priske’s AC Sparta Praha as a result. Upped 1-0, youngster Clark then quickly doubled the Reds’ lead before the loud home fans. A poor passage of passes by the visitors’ defensive backline allowed Salah to intercept the ball, and the 19-year-old academy player Clark slotted home his first professional senior career goal.
Salah then turned to become the goal scorer in Liverpool’s third of the evening, this time from another mediocre linkup play by AC Sparta Praha. The Czech First League outfit’s bad pass at the back offered a gift to the fit-again Egypt national team captain to increase his season tally to 20 goals in 31 matches in all competitions. In the 14th minute, a slip from a Praha player allowed Salah to break away once again, followed by the megastar’s one-two with his strike partner Núñez. The 31-year-old then fed the Dutch winger Gakpo inside the dangerous zone, who then increased Klopp’s men’s lead in the aggregate score to 9-1.
4⃣ goals in 7⃣ minutes 🙌 #UEL pic.twitter.com/pfen2fm3O1
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 14, 2024
11 Goals Saw the Reds Reaching the Europa League Last 8
Veljko Birmančević did all he could to make the score line more respectable for the down-and-out AC Sparta Praha prior of the half-time break, but this only led to another couple of goals by the home team in the second period, completing the two legs in the round of 16 and reaching the Europa League Last 8 via an 11-2 aggregate.
The Reds had to thank 23-year-old Hungary national team captain Szoboszlai for their fifth goal of the evening, when the midfielder’s effort inside the box was deflected into the net three minutes after the restart. AC Sparta Praha’s nightmare and failure to reach the Europa League Last 8 were confirmed with Gakpo giving the final nail in the coffin in the 55th minute of the second leg. This was the first time Liverpool have advanced to the Europa League Last 8 since the 2015/2016 Season.
Apart from Liverpool reaching the Europa League Last 8, their German Bundesliga 1 counterparts Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who are now managed by the Reds legendary midfielder Xabi Alonso, also joined them in the following round of this competition. The current leading team in the German top-flight football of course came from behind for the second time in as many Europa League fixtures to edge past Qarabağ FK 3-2 and 5-4 in the second leg and overall score at BayArena, pushing their unbeaten run in all competitions to a staggering 37 games in 2023/2024. In case you missed the live match, kindly click onto this link for the intriguing match nitty-gritty that we have prepared for you!
Klopp Wants Salah to Break Records After They Are Europa League Last 8-Bound
Klopp singled out Salah for being influential in leading his English Premier League side to the Europa League Last 8. “In seven years together with him, the one problem we never had was consistency. Mo is just delivering and delivering and delivering, his desire doesn’t stop, his quality is there and his desire to score doesn’t stop. He has improved in so many aspects since he started here. That’s how it is, he will not stop. I’m less surprised than maybe some others, I thought it had already happened to be honest but he was injured for a while, otherwise he would have done it in January or February. But great, very good, and great to have him back.”
The German also added some of the arrangements he had to make in this Europa League Last 8 decider, noting “It was not the plan he plays 90 minutes, the plan was to take him off when we brought on Mateusz (Musiałowski) but Bobby Clark said (He felt something) and Mo is experienced enough that he recovers during the game. I told him not to defend any more – I never told a player that before. The boys started the game incredibly well and 4-0 up in 14 minutes is really strange. From then on it became a strange game because how can you now stay greedy”.
Priske, the losing manager for AC Sparta Praha, also spent the post-match conference to make his feelings known for his team being unable to progress to the Europa League Last 8. “Big respect to Liverpool how they played these two legs, the level from Sparta to Liverpool is massive. It is a completely different level. We never faced something like this. Liverpool is a Champions League team and they should be playing in the Champions League,” said the Danish gaffer.
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