(Football news) In their first meeting of the season, last week at the epet Arena, Jurgen Klopp’s team defeated their Czech opponents 5-1, although the score did not tell the whole story.
The Reds would have to weather a fierce Sparta Prague storm after Alexis Mac Allister’s spot kick gave Liverpool an early lead during the first leg last week, but they survived because of their hosts’ carelessness and valiant defence.
Sparta Prague’s work would ultimately be done by Conor Bradley, but not before Darwin Nunez gave Liverpool a two-goal lead and the right-back fired into his own net; Luis Diaz and Dominik Szoboszlai added some gloss to the score in the second half.
Klopp was under no illusions that the Reds could have travelled home with a much less comfortable cushion, but unless Sparta Prague can channel the spirits of 2016-17 Barcelona, Liverpool should enjoy a stress-free stroll into the last eight of Europe’s secondary tournament.
Having won each of their three group games, the Reds are on an overall streak of eight successive Europa League triumphs on home turf and could now become just the second English side to win nine such games on the spin, following in Chelsea’s footsteps after the Blues did so between 2013 and 2019.
However, Liverpool were denied an eighth straight victory in all tournaments on Sunday, ceding control of the Premier League title race to Arsenal in an engrossing 1-1 draw with Manchester City, where Klopp and Pep Guardiola’s fascinating Premier League rivalry came to a fitting end.
Liverpool has been unstoppable when playing at home in the Europa League, but their troubled rivals Sparta Prague come to Merseyside with a dismal record of 17 defeats from their previous 21 continental games on rival ground, including losses in each of their last four away knockout games.
The Maroons’ 10-match unbeaten streak in the top flight, which dates back to the end of October, came to an end on Sunday during their matchup with Viktoria Plzen in the Czech Fortuna Liga. Brian Priske supervised yet another humiliating four-goal loss, which was clearly a hangover from their first-leg reverse.
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