DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK
The legend of Liverpool has been built on glorious comebacks against foreign opposition. The list, the very long list, includes Club Brugge in 1976, Saint-Étienne in 1977, Milan in 2005, Hicks and Gillett in 2010 and Barcelona in 2019. So even though most of us think Liverpool have nine toes in the Big Cup final, they’ll be taking the square root of bugger all for granted in Villarreal. Liverpool lead 2-0 from the first leg, in which their sadistic heavy metal football came within an overzealous semitone of causing collective tinnitus among the Villarreal squad.
Unai Emery sent eight players to the Ear, Nose & Throat department at the weekend nonetheless, so Villarreal will be refreshed for Mission: Nigh-on Impossible. They are also boosted by the return of Gerard Moreno, arguably their best player, though Alberto Moreno – a thorn in Liverpool’s side over the years – is out with an ACL injury. Villarreal’s record at El Madrigal is extremely good, and Jürgen Klopp does not share the complacency that is rife among the teatime email fraternity.
“It will be tough but that’s completely fine,” he said, instantly demonstrating more personality, authority and charisma in his second language than The Fiver has ever managed in its first innit. “It’s the [Big Cup] semi-final – it shouldn’t be easy. They will go with all they have. That is absolutely clear from the things Unai said after the [first leg] and from the weekend where they made eight changes and took the other two off at half-time. We know that at points we will suffer. We could go behind, the crowd will be up after a big challenge; it could happen. Suffering doesn’t mean for long. It’s about how you react.”
This time last year, Liverpool were really suffering. They were seventh in the Premier League, two points above Everton, and struggling to qualify for any European competition, never mind the big one. One spectacular 12-month reaction later, they are two games away from winning a seventh Big Cup. They might also be seven games away from quadruple-based immortality. It’s unthinkable that they won’t go through tonight. But Liverpool know better than anyone that, on big European nights, there’s a very big difference between unthinkable and impossible.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t want us to be seen as a yo-yo club. From now on, I just want us to be a yo club” – after winning the Championship title, Fulham chief suit Tony Khan aims to do some editing to keep the club in the top flight.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Get your ears around the latest Football Weekly podcast, here.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
It’s your man David Squires on … the Big Cup semi-finals and Jason Cundy’s truth torpedoes.
RECOMMENDED BOOKING
A New Formation: how Black British footballers shaped the modern game. Tickets are now available for the live event, featuring Jonathan Liew, Andrew Cole and Hope Powell.
FIVER LETTERS
“Presumably all the good, bad and even the truly terrible ideas in the world have already been used up if TV is getting round to rehashing Baddiel and Skinner’s Fantasy Football League? – Noble Francis.
“Re: team abbreviations (Fiver letters passim) – I’m a Lincoln city fan and was doing missionary work in Kent. My veteran footie teammates knew the landlord of a pub with Sky and we all congregated to watch Walsall v the Imps. So it was WAL v LIN. ‘Who you supporting lads?’ said the barman as we settled in, the only people watching the big screen. ‘It’s him,’ they said pointing at me, ‘supports Lincoln’. There was a pause and the barman enquired: ‘What they doing playing Wales?’” – Ian Dovey.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Ian Dovey.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Bournemouth midfielder David Brooks has been given the all-clear to resume his career after having cancer treatment on stage two Hodgkin lymphoma last year.
Ineos head honcho Jim Ratcliffe remains hopeful his late takeover bid for Chelsea can succeed, and is giving it all that about expanding Stamford Bridge’s capacity to 60,000 and turning Chelsea into the “Real Madrid or Bayern Munich of London”.
Russia have been thrown out of the women’s Euros, had their clubs excluded from European competitions next season and banned from tournament bids by Uefa in response to the ongoing war against Ukraine.
A dad who let his son run on the pitch during Middlesbrough’s win over Stoke, filmed it on his phone and then became abusive with stewards when asked to leave, has been banned for life from the Riverside. Such actions “trivialised the importance of the game to our fans, town, players and management” harrumphed Boro in a statement.
Charlton have opted not to renew manager Johnnie Jackson’s contract so he is free to see himself out of the door marked Do One.
Mr 15% Pina Zahavi will have to go without his cut for a bit after being given a two-month ban by the FA over false statements relating to Beram Kayal’s 2015 move from the Queen’s Celtic to Brighton.
Blackburn have become the first British club to host Eid prayers on their pitch.
And in last night’s Premier League action, Ralf Rangnick’s all-sorts decided to put in a decent performance to take some of the edge off fans’ protests in a 3-0 win over Brentford.
STILL WANT MORE?
Reading’s Deanne Rose gets her chat on with Ella Braidwood about role models, representation and starting a football camp for girls.
This week’s missives from Europe include Sid Lowe on another Real Madrid title and Carlo Ancelotti’s grand slam, Nicky Bandini on a possibly fateful derby failure for Genoa against Sampdoria while Andy Brassell watched Leipzig suffer defeat and disdain at Mönchengladbach.
Former Bayern star and Fiver colleague Philipp Lahm on how the Premier League’s pull threatens Bayern and the Bundesliga.
Jonathan Wilson pays tribute to Ivica Osim, the Yugoslavian football giant who twice rejected Real Madrid, who has died aged 80.
Here’s your weekly diet of 10 Premier League things worth chatting about from the weekend.
Jonathan Liew hails Richarlison’s spirit after his pivotal role in FLE’s win over Chelsea.
And if it’s your thing … you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace. And INSTACHAT, TOO!
