Liverpool are reportedly confident to boost their hopes of winning a silverware this season as they remain optimistic to knockout United from the Europa League completion. The Reds will be travel to Manchester on Thursday night to take on Manchester United in the second leg of their last-16 Europa League tie.
The Merseyside club hold a 2-0 lead from the first leg but will be well aware of the difficult that awaits them on Thursday. One of Liverpool players Emre Can has stated that they’re very confident of that they are in control of United and will have to knockout the Red Devils.
“Of course we are, we won 2-0,” Can told the Liverpool website.
“We have to be happy about that. Everyone was very happy with the draw to play United, we just wanted to play like recent games which we played very well. We did a good job and we have to keep going like that next week. It was a very big game for the Liverpool family. It was a great game, a great night, a great result.”
Daniel Sturridge and Robert Firmino’s goals saw Liverpool record a 2-0 win of the first legs, which keeps them in a somewhat comfortable place ahead of the Thursday’s clash.
Refusing to compare their match with United and that against Manchester City, Can explained: That’s done now (the League Cup final defeat to City. “This is very different. The spirit is very strong. There are good teams like Manchester United. We have to show our performances. We have to keep going like in the first game. We have to press and we have to play to win the game.
Of course, we have to try and score again. We don’t want to defend for 90 minutes. We want to go to the quarter-final, we want to win this competition. We have played a lot of games in it already. It is very important to us.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool legend John Aldridge has claimed that Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp should motivate his players to play with much confidence to see them proceed to the next round. Writing in his column for the Liverpool echo, Aldridge said: We’re in a great position to progress to the quarter-finals of the Europa League but there’s still a lot of work to be done against Manchester United.
“Our recent record at Old Trafford is poor. We have lost eight of our last nine matches there. But this Liverpool side should have taken great encouragement from how we outplayed United at Anfield last week.
“There is nothing to be scared of. We’ve beaten United once and we can do it again. We have to go there, roll our sleeves up and be strong, both physically and mentally. A 2-0 lead is very useful but we can’t afford to sit back and try to hold on to what we’ve got. That would be asking for trouble.
“We need to be on the front foot and looking to cause them problems. If we score then that kills the tie and United will be aware of that.”