Liverpool - Stoke (26.01.2016)

[Rainbow-Bet]

Read full preview at: http://www.rainbow-bet.com

 

 

Second leg in the Capital One Cup semifinal, Liverpool takes on Stoke at Anfield Road. The home side won 0-1 at Britannia in the first leg, but still got a long injury list. The team who win over two legs will meet either Everton or Manchester City in the final at Wembley.

 

The home team has played some entertaining matches lately. 2-2 against Exeter, 3-3 in the Premier League against Arsenal and in the weekend an incredible 4-5 win to Norwich. If we can see a match with a lot of goal today is another matter. Divock Origi is in really goalform at the moment, scoring 4 goals in his last 3 league matches. Origi is unfortunately unavailable for today's game. Good news that centre back Dejan Lovren is recovered after his injury, but expected to start on the bench. An extra motivating for Liverpool is that they may meet their local rivals Everton in the final (Everton beat Manchester City 2-1 in the first leg).

 

These players are unavailable for Liverpool today:

 

Nathaniel Clyne (defender)

Steven Caulker (defender)

Martin Skrtel (defender)

Joe Gomez (defender)

Connor Randall (defender)

Philippe Coutinho (midfield)

Jordon Rossiter (midfield)

Daniel Sturridge (striker)

Divock Origi (striker)

Danny Ings (striker)

 

Expected lineup Liverpool:

 

Mignolet

Enrique – Toure – Sakho – Moreno

Henderson – Lucas – Can

Ibe – Benteke – Milner

 

The away side are looking for a revenge after the 0-1 defeat at home in the first leg, and have to score goals tonight to go through to the final. After a 3-0 win against Norwich in the league, it's been 0-0 home against Arsenal and an ugly 3-0 defeat away to Leicester in the weekend.

 

Stoke have shown that their top level are high this season, but they're still a bit unstable in performance. The important centre back Ryan Shawcross are out due to injury for Stoke. Geoff Cameron (defender) and Shay Given (goalkeeper) are also unavailable. Marko Arnautovic is fit after his hamstring injury, but it's a big question is Mark Hughes starts with his top scorer in this match. A possible choice is Mame Biram Diouf if Arnautovic is benched.

 

Expected lineup Stoke:

 

Butland

Johnson – Wilson – Wollscheid – Pieters

Whelan – Afellay

Walters – Bojan – Arnautovic

Crouch

 

Stoke manager Mark Hughes seems to have a plan to exploit Liverpool weakness on set pieces/corner kicks tn todays game. 203 cm high Peter Crouch will most likely play up to for the visitors. Ex Liverpool player Crouch has a good stat against his former club, has scored 3 goals in his last 5 apperances against Jurgen Klopp's side. The goals came back in March 2012, January 2014 and the last one in May 2015. Liverpool will lose pace on their right side with important Clyde missing out. Both Bojan and Arnautovic can use the space that Liverpool leaves behind, to try to find Crouch with crosses to the box. Liverpool has been uncomfortable on crosses in the box through the whole season, and it looks like a good game plan for Stoke to play a more direct and long ball style today. The man they'll try to find is Crouch, most likely in the air.

 

 

 

We see great value in Crouch continues his stats against Liverpool today, and bet he'll nick in a goal in this game.

 

 

Peter Crouch (goalscorer)