Title-contending Liverpool face relegated Huddersfield

Liverpool hope to return back to the top of the Premier League when they welcome Huddersfield to Anfield in the first fixture of the weekend.

On Friday, Liverpool host Huddersfield at Anfield where the fate of the two opponents remains very different. The Terriers already know that their next campaign will be in the Championship whilst Liverpool remain in the hunt for that ever-elusive Premier League crown.

In the Reds’ last fixture, Jurgen Klopp’s team faced Cardiff City as the teams vied for three points to support their objectives of winning the title and avoiding relegation.

The first half saw a slow start by Liverpool as Cardiff had opportunities to break the deadlock. In the second half, Liverpool added more pace and flair into the game, finally breaking the deadlock in the 57th minute. A lovely cross into the box from Trent-Alexander Arnold found Georginio Wijnaldum, who struck the ball into the top right corner of Neil Etheridge’s goal. In the 81st minute, Liverpool sealed the goal after James Milner scored a penalty after a controverisal foul on Mohamed Salah by Sean Morrison. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp spoke about the progress his team has made since his appointment in 2015.

He said:

“We made our own experiences in the last three-and-a-half years. We had a lot of difficult moments, we had good moments, we train a lot together and we’ve been together for three-and-a-half years, so it’s completely normal if you have the quality to do so.

“We still have space for improvement and that’s the most important thing for us, because whether or not we win the league it’s only the first step.”

Where as for the visiting side, they haven’t been great all season. Only 14 points in 35 games is woeful for a side that finished the season in 16th last season. Last Saturday they hosted a tough opposition in Watford as they tried to end their last few games in the top flight on a good note.

The Terriers showed early signs of bad defending when Gerard Deulofeu opened the scoring in the fifth minute. Nothing happened for the rest of the game until the last ten minutes. Deulofeu scored another goal in the 80th minute which sealed the deal for Watford after another dominant display. Even though Karlan Grant scored in the 93rd minute it was too late for Huddersfield to grab at least a point from the match. Huddersfield Town coach Jan Siewert spoke of his excitement ahead of this weekend’s Premier League game against Liverpool FC.

He said:

“For me, I am really excited to go there. It’s an incredible stadium, an incredible possibility for us to play and we are all looking forward to it.

“I don’t think we will have the ball often because they have incredible quality, so we have to prepared and show what we can do when we have the ball.

“We have possibilities and there’s an excitement to go there and perform the best way we can.

“We go there to show our quality. We have to show that we want to compete with them.”

Team News

Liverpool

The following players are unlikely to feature in this fixture for Liverpool:

Dejan Lovren – Illness
Adam Lallana – Knock
Fabinho – Head injury

Huddersfield

The following players are unlikely to feature in this fixture for Huddersfield:

Abdelhamid Sabiri – Lack of match fitness
Adama Diakhaby – Hamstring injury
Laurent Depoitre – Foot injury