Liverpool is going to face Macedonian club FK Rabotnicki on 29 July 2010 at the Philip II Arena, Skopje in Macedonia in the third qualifying round of UEFA Europa League 2010-11. Liverpool has already reached Macedonia for the first leg encounter with a vastly inexperienced squad.
Time
The match kicks off at 18:45 GMT (19:45 BST) and local time (Macedonia). In the US, the match starts at 14:45 (New York time) and at 11:45 (California time).
Live Score
Football fans can get the live updates of the match at the following link:
http://www.livescore.com/
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson did not include his World Cup players including Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher and Joe Cole who would all be working out at home. Striker Fernando Torres is yet to return from vacation after winning the World Cup with Spain. Dirk Kuyt, Javier Mascherano and Maxi Rodriguez have also been kept out of the squad.
Earlier, Liverpool’s medical staffs warned Hodgson not to rush his World Cup players to ensure that they recover from the fatigue and become fully fit both physically and mentally by the time Premier League kicks off. However, earlier reports also suggested that Hodgson would not take the risk of resting his key players against Rabotnicki in fear of suffering a humiliating upset.
Now, it seems that Hodgson is more concerned with Premier League and wants to ensure the availability of the key players like Gerrard and Cole from the beginning of Premier League the season.
The squad Hodgson is carrying in Macedonia consists of fringe and young players. There are a number of young players including Jonjo Shelvey, David Amoo, Nathan Eccleston, Peter Gulacsi, Tom Ince, Lauri Dalla Valle and Martin Hansen who are relatively unknown outside the club.
It is true that the squad lacks experience, but the fringe players like Martin Skrtel, Alberto Aquilani, Daniel Agger, David Ngog and Sotirios Kyrgiakos have considerable amount of experience. Two new signings Danny Wilson and Milan Jovanovic have also been included in the squad.
Diego Cavalieri is most likely to be in goal with Skrtel, Agger and Kyrgiakos featuring some experience in defense. In the midfield, Aquilani has to play a key role, while Hodgson could feature new signing Milan Jovanovic to pair up with Ngog in attack.
Rabotnicki does not have any star player, but the three-time Macedonian league champion features six Brazilian players in their squad including a prolific scorer in Wandeir.
In terms of squad strength, Liverpool is still much stronger than their opponent, but Rabotnicki players could be inspired to outshine the Premier League side, knowing that they are playing the biggest match in the history of their club.
Overall, Liverpool may be missing a number of star players, but still Rabotnicki could face the Reds too hard to break. The home side would look to take inspiration from their 1-1 draw at home with Bolton Wanderers that came three years back in the first leg of the third round qualifying round match of UEFA Cup 2007-08.
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