Liverpool, coming from four consecutive defeats, will have to do better in Bulgaria on Wednesday if they want to retain their chances of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages. Last weekend Brendan Rodgers' side got beaten 3-1 at Crystal Palace and only managed one shot on target: Rickie Lambert's goal 90 seconds into the game. The Reds defeated Ludogorets 2-1 at Anfield in their opening group match, but they needed a 93rd minute penalty kick to secure all three points.
After that match the Reds have lost three Champions League games in a row: away at Basel and both matches against defending champions Real Madrid. They have also failed to score in all three matches. Liverpool are third in Group B, tied on 3 points with Ludogorets and three points behind second-placed Basel. Real Madrid will almost certainly finish top of the group after winning all four matches so far.
Mario Balotelli could feature up front with Daniel Sturridge out until the New Year, the Italian had scored his first goal for the club in the reverse fixture against Ludogorets. For the Bulgarian champions only a win against Liverpool would put them in the race for the knockout stage as their last group match is away at Real Madrid.
Probable line-ups:
Ludogorets: Stoyanov - Minev, Moti, Terziev, Caicara - Alexnadrov, Espinho, Abalo, Dyakob, Marcelinho - Bezjak
Liverpool: Mignolet - Johnson, Toure, Skrtel, Moreno - Can, Gerrard - Sterling, Coutinho, Lallana - Balotelli
My prediction: Liverpool to win 1-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Ludogorets win - 3/1 Draw - 13/5 Liverpool win - 1/1
Johnajax 9 years ago
I was wathcing Liverpool against Ludogorets and also against Stoke. And I can't recognize them. Against ludogorets they were bad, they concede early goal and they struggled whole mach, and in finish we saw great Ludogorets and they are maybe deserve more than only draw... but Liverpool played better against stoke and I...
I was wathcing Liverpool against Ludogorets and also against Stoke. And I can't recognize them. Against ludogorets they were bad, they concede early goal and they struggled whole mach, and in finish we saw great Ludogorets and they are maybe deserve more than only draw... but Liverpool played better against stoke and I hope that they will play better and better and they can do a lot in champions league.
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Tomas.White 9 years ago
Amazing result for Ludogorets. Small team, with very organised management combined team that can play against big Real Madrid. Liverpool is in bad form, and with few stupid mistakes and with fanaticism of crowd in Bulgaria Ludogorets won very big point for football in Eastern Europe. They are proof that even with small...
Amazing result for Ludogorets. Small team, with very organised management combined team that can play against big Real Madrid. Liverpool is in bad form, and with few stupid mistakes and with fanaticism of crowd in Bulgaria Ludogorets won very big point for football in Eastern Europe. They are proof that even with small budget you can compete.
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galata86 9 years ago
Ludogorets razgrad showed us tonight that with a lot of money today you can do anything you want in football. Few years ago Ludogorets was on the bottom of Bulgarion football (Bulgarian!?!?) and today they are in champions league and playing 2-2 with big Liverpool. But also Liverpool showed that they are in bad bad form...
Ludogorets razgrad showed us tonight that with a lot of money today you can do anything you want in football. Few years ago Ludogorets was on the bottom of Bulgarion football (Bulgarian!?!?) and today they are in champions league and playing 2-2 with big Liverpool. But also Liverpool showed that they are in bad bad form and if they don't get better soon their season could be big fail.
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VlahovicNovo
9 years ago
I think that is time for Liverpool win.They are in bad form in both front but their players quality are very good and thats must be seen.I think Ludogortets today no chance to win and Lpool must win , if they want go in 2nd round.
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