Day: April 23, 2018

Liverpool have been written off at least twice in this season’s Champions League yet they have made it to the Semifinals and face another team that was considered not good enough for this stage.

The Reds drew their first two Champions League group games to Sevilla and Spartak Moscow yet they finished the group stage as the second highest scorers in the competition with 23 goals, they have scored many more goals now.

In the quarterfinals against arguably the best team in England at the moment, Liverpool were yet again considered the underdogs, but they roared to a 5-1 aggregate victory over Pep Guardiola’s men and their fans would now be dreaming of another final in Kiev, Ukraine.

Jurgen Klopp rested most of his star men at the weekend as they threw away a two goals lead to draw 2-2 against West Brom, Mohamed Salah was started and the Egyptian scored his 31st Premier League goal of the campaign, he has also netted 8 times in 10 Champions League games and he would be one of the stars of this game.

AS Roma are not to be underrated also.

The Romans defeated Barcelona 3-0 in the last round to progress 4-4 on aggregate having trailed 4-1 from the first leg, they drew their next game against Lazio before earning wins against SPAL and Genoa ahead of this match.

They have impressively scored in all but one of their Champions League away games this season and they would be looking to get another important away goal here also.

Wigan’s promotion back to the Championship was inevitably confirmed the last time out after they brushed aside Fleetwood Town 4-0.

The Latics looked certain to return to England’s second tier from their start of the season and they would now look to end the season on a high note starting with another win at struggling Bristol Rovers.

Bristol Rovers have had a tough end to the season. They lost their last league game 2-0 at Rotherham and that means they have now failed to win any of their last four games.

They have an enviable record at home though, but they would find it hard to shut out a Wigan side that is gunning for the title.

Wigan were beaten 2-1 at Portsmouth three weeks ago, that could have seen any team surrender their title challenge and hit rock bottom, but Paul Cook’s men have shown their class by moving on well from that loss to win 4 of their last five league games and put themselves firmly in the running for the league title, also netting an impressive 14 goals in those matches.

Bristol have continued to struggle in defence and they have kept just two clean sheets at home in the whole of this season and their inability to keep things tight at the back might be their biggest undoing here again.