MMA prodigy – Victoria Lee knocked out 3 professional opponents

As known on Gambling Online 188BET, Singapore-American female boxer Victoria Lee is the younger sister of two world MMA champions at ONE Championship. Her eldest sister is Angela Lee, who has held the Atomweight belt for a long time despite the fact that this weight class has many strong opponents.

Victoria’s brother is Christian Lee, who also held the world lightweight championship belt before losing it to Ok Rae Won at the recent ONE: Revolution event.

Growing up among champions, Victoria Lee quickly developed an interest in mixed martial arts. According to Gambling Online 188BET experts’ review, even the skills of the girl born in 2004 are evaluated as comprehensively as her siblings.

Victoria Lee officially entered the professional MMA scene in February of this year in the Atomweight category. The 17-year-old female boxer quickly shocked when she knocked out Thai opponent Sunisa Srisen (who has 4 victories after 5 matches) with a famous “Rear Naked Choke” strangulation right in the second round.

Then at the end of July, Victoria Lee continued to shock the Asian MMA village when she defeated Chinese female boxer Luping Wang with an arm lock (Armbar) when the first round was just over 1 minute.

Most recently at the ONE: Revolution event that ended on September 24, the 17-year-old woman continued to have a fight with a Brazilian boxer with very good martial arts and wrestling skills, Victoria Souza.

Before the match, Lee was not as appreciated as his opponent when Souza was on a 5-match winning streak on the professional stage, including 4 by knockout.

Surprisingly, when the opening bell rang, Lee did not hesitate to wrestle with an opponent with a knack for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She was even able to close the match when she performed the correct arm lock.

Unfortunately, the time of the first half ran out before the locking move created enough pressure for the opponent to surrender.

Early in the second half, Lee continued to drag Souza to the floor and unleashed a series of very heavy elbows. When the opponent was intoxicated, Lee turned over and launched a stranglehold, locking his right hand and then repeatedly swinging his elbow.

Despite his remarkable ability to resist and withstand blows, Souza had to submit, signaling to surrender when the second half still had more than 1 minute left.

With victories like chopping bamboo against more experienced and famous seniors, Victoria Lee is known as the “MMA prodigy”.

For Vietnamese martial arts fans and 188BET fans, they hope to soon see Lee compete against Vietnamese-born female boxer Bi Nguyen who is also competing in this weight class at ONE Championship.

Victoria shares the pressure of being the sister of two ONE Championship champions

As the younger sister of two ONE Championship champions, Victoria received a lot of expectations from 188BET fans when she entered the professional MMA village even though she is only 17 years old this year.

Sharing about that pressure, the Lee daughter said: “Both my brother and sister (Christian and Angela) gave me a lot of valuable advice. They have a lot of experience, so they completely understand what emotions I went through during this period, especially when I will be making my ONE Championship debut at such a young age.

Brother and sister advised me to relax and keep myself as mentally strong as possible, which will help me overcome the pressure of the first match.

I think the best thing I learned from my brothers and sisters is watching them practice, it gives me more motivation to continue on their successful path.”

It is known from Gambling Online 188BET that Victoria Lee is a very good fighter in the use of Taekwondo, Muay Thai, BJJ and Free Wrestling techniques in competition. This is also the forte of her two older siblings, Angela and Christian Lee.

Notably, the girl with the nickname “The Prodigy” has become a two-time Pankration world champion, 2020 Hawaii state wrestling champion and 15-time NAGA champion.

Now, she is fully focused on her first professional MMA fight. “It’s similar to training for any other competition, because we train hard all the time,” Lee said.

“The Prodigy” is used to mixing multiple martial arts together, and she believes the seamless transition from offensive to wrestling, to locking skills will be crucial to her success.

Things you may not know about World Cup tournament

Every 4 years, football lovers are excited about the World Cup tournament. World Cup is no doubt real the best tournament ever, attracting millions of people all around the world. The article lists some interesting things you may not know about this incredible tournament.

Keyword: football

The history of the World Cup

The World Cup was held for the first time in 1930 by FIFA- the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Football had existed for a long time before the year 1930. The match between Scotland and England marked the first international football match in the world. Since then, football had stretched all around the world and gained love from a huge amount of people.

Truc Tiep Bong Da From Bongdaf.net

In the 1932 Summer Olympics in the United States, football did not appear in the list of sports, which led to FIFA’s decision about holding their own football tournament. Uruguay was chosen as the host country for this first tournament.

First FIFA World Cup was held in Centenario Stadium in Montevideo city. There were only 13 nations taking part in this tournament, including four nations from Europe, two nations from North America and seven nations coming from South America.

Reasons why the World Cup is held every four years

World Cup is obviously the most attractive tournament in the world. So there must be some reasons why FIFA decided to take it every four years instead of two years, three years or every year. The answer is more simple than what you have in your mind.

In the past, IOC, the organization which holds the Olympic event, had tried to hold it every two years. However, they failed from their first time in 1906. After some discussions, they all agreed that 4-years coming up as the best gap to hold this football tournament.

In addition, as the FIFA World Cup started in 1930 when transportation did not develop strongly like what it does today, it was hard for footballers to travel around the world for the annual tournament. This is the reason why there were 13 countries joining the first World Cup tournament in 1930. In fact, four countries from Europe participated and others chose to stay at home because of this geographical barrier.

Hosting a World Cup tournament is not an easy task. Source: AboutBrasil

On the other hand, footballers really need time to relax and recover (if they have any injuries during the tournament). As football is sports with many activities, footballers can potentially get the injury. In some serious case, they have to stop playing for a particular period of time to receive treatment. The gap four years may be an ideal period for them to fully recover but not making their fans to wait too long.

From the view of the host country, World Cup would be an incredible chance to introduce more about the country, culture, splendid sights,…Thus, the host country can attract more foreign tourists, contributing greatly to the development of tourism industry.

However, the story is not that simple. The host country has to ensure its infrastructure to welcome about five million or even more football fans. Brazil, the host of World Cup 2014, spent about $4 billion in their 12 stadiums upgrading. The amount of money is even three times bigger for Russia to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Their $12 billion to prepare everything needed for this football tournament really shocked the whole world.

Lastly, the four-year period seems to be a perfect time for the football fans to wait for their favourite footballers’ performance. Letting them wait instead of holding this football tournament every year or every two years is actually reasonable and smart.

Are the winners “home teams”?

It is not random that in many football tournaments, the winners are the home teams. This is what many people, especially the football lovers, often complain about. The host nations not only gain huge economic benefits but their home teams seem to receive preferential treatments no matter how their performances are.

There are six home teams who are also the winners: Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), Germany (1974), Argentina (1978), France (1998). In four years, including 1930, 1950, 1962 and 1978, when the FIFA World Cup was held in South America, all the teams won came from South America.

This may be just a coincidence. Of course, we cannot deny the fact that all many teams are talented, but these coincidences really raise doubts about the preferential treatments. Why people around the world all perceive football as the king of sports? The reason is its tremendous spirit that no other sports have. And damaging this spirit, of course, makes football fans angry.

Is there a nation competing in every World Cup?

Brazil competes in every World Cup tournament. Source: BongDaF

The answer is Brazil. Brazil is the only country in the world to participate in every FIFA World Cup. Brazil now leads the world with its five wins. Before building this excellent reputation, Brazil team had faced a hard time when they lose Uruguay in a knockout match in the 1950 World Cup.

That Uruguay won 2-1 was really a shock, not only for Brazil citizens but also for football fans all around the world. The president of FIFA, Jules Rimet, had thought that Brazil would be the winner and only prepared his speech in Portuguese, Brazil’s most popular language. Brazil now ranks first in the soccer World Cup titles won by the country with their five winning tournaments, including 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002.

The Queen of World Cup songs

Football and music have a close relationship. World Cup songs often are sung by famous singers and they receive love from people all around the world, even they are not football fans. These songs inspire both footballers and football fans greatly with their meaningful lyrics and an amazing beat.

Shakira is the Queen of World Cup theme song. Source: YouTube

One of the most successful World Cup songs is “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” which is the combination between Colombian singer Shakira and South African band Freshlyground. Released in 7^th May 2010, the song was chosen as the official song of FIFA World Cup 2010.

This pop song encourages people to purchase their goals and fight for them like a soldier. At the moment, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) has got more than two billion views on Shakia’s official Youtube channel with more than 8,3 million likes. More than just an anthem, Waka Waka also ranked 38 on the Billboard 100. Shakira, therefore, is called as the Queen of World Cup by Billboard.

Shakira also sang the 2014 World Cup theme song “La La La” feat Carlinhos Brown. The collaboration of pop and Brazilian funk has gotten love and support not only from football fans but also from music lovers.

At the moment, the song has gotten more than 1 billion views and 4.3 million likes. “I dare you” appears at the very first second of the song, making the whole song like an encouragement. Another reason for the popularity of this song, besides the incredible beat and lyrics, is the appearance of most famous football players, such as Messi, James Rodríguez, Neymar, Sergio Agüero, Eric Abidal, Cesc Fàbregas, Radamel Falcao, Shakira’s boyfriend Gerard Piqué.

The football world is more than what in your mind. The most beautiful performances are not the only incredible things about this fascinating world. There are hundreds of things in this football world waiting for you to discover.

A Beginner’s Guide to Football Betting Terms

Most of us don’t need anything extra to enjoy football. The beautiful game has enamoured generation after generation, drawn to the atmosphere, excitement and extensive history of the sport. But for those who do want something extra to add to the spectator experience, betting could be the answer.

Make sure that you only ever bet money that you can afford to lose, and if you find yourself unable to stop betting, you must seek professional advice.

Stake

A stake is simply the amount of money that you put down for a bet. If you don’t win your bet, the stake is lost.

Accumulator

An accumulator can be thought of as a number of separate bets, usually four or more, that are packaged together into a single individual bet. When you hear those stories of making huge wins from a small bet, it is usually because of an accumulator.

When you bet on an accumulator, you are betting on a number of different things all happening. Let’s say you bet on a five-fold accumulator. Instead of placing five individual bets, you place only the accumulator. If four of the five selections occur, the entire accumulator fails. However, if all five selections are satisfied, the winnings will be much higher than they would be if the bets had been placed individually.

Handicap

Many football matches are difficult to predict the outcome of; it wouldn’t be much of a sport if the results were easy to guess ahead of time. But every now and then, a game comes along with a very clear favourite to win. Of course, even these games can sometimes go in unexpected directions.

A handicap is designed to give an advantage to the underdog and encourage punters to place bets on both teams. For example, if a team has a handicap of -1 (minus 1), this means that 1 will be taken off their final score and this new ‘virtual’ score will be treated as the real one.

If team A has a -1 handicap and the final score is 1 – 0 in team A’s favour, the match will have been a draw as far as the bookie is concerned.

Half Time/Full Time

As well as being able to bet on the outcome of an entire game, punters can also bet on the outcome at the half time mark. It is therefore possible to place a bet which predicts a draw at half time but a victory for the home team at full time.

Banker

A banker is another term for a sure thing. These are bets on outcomes that seem so likely to occur that they are a near-certainty. Of course, many gamblers think that the bets they’re making are clear bankers, but this isn’t always the case. You can find odds from various bookies on gamblerslounge.com, as well as football betting tips. If you are presented with an alleged banker, make sure that you carefully check the likelihood of winning for yourself.

Although the world of sports betting might seem completely alien at first, you will soon get used to it. Once you know all the terminology, you can then focus on honing your sense for a good bet.

Premier League Match day 4: Matchplug team of the week

The Premier League season has reached the 4th week, and there have been ups and downs for almost all the teams. Liverpool, Chelsea, and Watford are all on maximum points, and they wouldn’t have achieved that without the contributions of some key members of their squad, here are our best players for week 4.

Alex Mc-Carthy – Goalkeeper, Southampton

Alex McCarthy has moved above Fraser Forster as Southampton’s first choice. At first, I was taken aback by the decision to make McCarthy first choice over Forster, but the 28 years old has proved to be a hit since he was named first-choice goalkeeper and last week, he helped the Saints to their first win of the season.

Marcos Alonso – Left back, Chelsea

Chelsea have started the campaign under a new manager, and Marcos Alonso is still as impressive as ever. He has been one of the best attacking left backs in the league since he joined in 2016, but the season he has added goals and even more assists to his game. He takes our left back spot ahead of Andrew Robertson.

Craig Cathcart – centre-back, Watford

Watford have made a solid start to the new league season, and much of that success can be attributed to their defence. One of their most important defenders is Craig Cathcart, and he showed yet again last weekend why he is so highly rated.

After falling behind to an own goal against Tottenham, he helped the Hornets keep things tight at the back as they came back to beat the Lilywhites 2-1 and maintain their 100 percent record, including scoring the winner.

Virgil van Dijk – centre-back, Liverpool

Van Dijk has been so good since he joined Liverpool in January that nobody talks about the £75 million fees it took to sign him from Southampton. He showed his class against Leicester City again at the weekend and was it not for a howler from Alisson, Liverpool would still have not conceded a goal this season.

Kyle Walker – Right Back, Manchester City

Kyle Walker is another player who made a big-money move last summer and he helped Pep Guardiola win his first Premier League crown. He remains one of the best right backs in the country, and his goal last weekend proved to be the difference between 3 points and one point for Manchester City.

Fellaini – Center Midfield, Manchester United

Manchester United fans were disappointed that Fellaini was offered a new deal this summer, but Jose Mourinho knows just why the Belgian should be kept at Old Trafford. Following back to back losses, Mourinho played Fellaini against Burnley and he helped the Red Devils to a first win in three attempts.

Jean Seri – Center Midfield, Fulham

Seri rejected Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal to sign for Fulham this summer, and it has taken him time to adjust to the Premier League, but the Ivorian has been impressive this past two weeks. He scored his first goal against Burnley and helped the Cottagers to a draw last weekend with impressive displays from midfield.

Sadio Mane – Left midfield, Liverpool

This season seems to be Sadio Mane’s at Liverpool as it is hard to stop the Senegalese from scoring at the moment. He scored his fourth goal of the season against Leicester City, and although Liverpool were outplayed for much of the match, the goal still proved important as they earned a 2-1 win.

Rachid Ghezzal – right midfield, Leicester City

Leicester City signed Ghezzal to replace Riyad Mahrez this summer, and the former Monaco man has a huge boot to fill. However, he has not started badly. He impressed against Liverpool as he constantly looked like the player who is likely to make things happen for the Foxes and he got the goal that his performance deserved.

Romelu Lukaku – Striker, Manchester United

Manchester United did not start the season well, but it appears that Romelu Lukaku has taken responsibility and his double against Burnley has definitely helped to lift moods around Old Trafford. That is his 3rd league goal this season, and he could be in the race for the Golden boot again.

Aleksandar Mitrovic – striker, Fulham

Newcastle fans would be looking over at Fulham and wonder why Rafa Benitez sold Aleksandar Mitrovic. While the Magpies have scored just 3 goals this season, the Serbian has netted four times in as many Premier League games, if he continues this way, he can score up to 20 goals by the end of the season.

Fastest growing football clubs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram 2018– soccer prediction

With the new season underway, some of the most popular websites in the world are prediction sites that offer free or premium soccer predictions to fans and bettors all over the world.

While the numbers of prediction sites have increased because of the need for accurate soccer predictions, one thing that we may not know is that more fans are following their clubs on social media more than ever before.

With more clubs traditionally small clubs making major signings, from Everton signing Bernard to Wolves signing Rui Patricio, the craze to know what your club is doing has driven several fans to like, follow and subscribe to their club’s social media handles.

In this article, we take some time away from talking about prediction sites and soccer predictions to profile the fastest growing football clubs on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Facebook

Facebook is the world’s biggest social media network. While several people now fancy other new social networks like Instagram and Snapchat, Mark Zuckerberg’s company still provide football clubs with some of the biggest numbers of followers. Here are the fastest growing football clubs on Facebook according to Social Bakers.

Fastest growing

While some popular teams like Real Madrid and Manchester United have the most fans on Facebook, however, other teams who are less popular are quickly catching up with them, and some of the names of the fastest growing football clubs on Facebook are quite surprising. Here are the top four fastest growing:

PSG

+85,862 fans per week

2. Inter Milan

+69, 004 fans per week

3. Real Madrid

+51, 802 fans per week

4. Olympique Lyon

+45,752 fans per week

The most followed: here is the list of the top four most followed teams on Facebook:

Real Madrid 109 million followers

Manchester United 73 million followers

Arsenal 37 million followers

Manchester City 35 million followers

Twitter

Twitter is arguably the second biggest social media network. Football fans love to get on twitter because of the short updates on the latest happenings that get posted on the social media. Several teams have been using their Twitter handles to get closer to their fans, here are the five fastest growing football clubs on Twitter:

Real Madrid CF +42, 895 followers per week

FC Barcelona +31, 779 followers per week

Liverpool FC +29, 056 followers per week

Manchester United +25, 334 followers per week

Chelsea FC +23, 391 followers per week

The most followed; here are the most followed teams on Twitter:

Real Madrid 30.7 million followers

FC Barcelona 28.8 million followers

Manchester United 18. 2 million followers

Arsenal 13.7 million followers

Chelsea FC 12.1 million followers

Instagram

Instagram is one of the hardest social media networks to get statistics on anything; it was the same for the fastest growing football clubs on the social network. However, we have pieced together a list of the fastest growing football clubs on Instagram between January and now using data from Statistica in January 2018 and looking at their progress now (August 2018), here are the fastest growing:

Juventus +5.2 million followers

Real Madrid +4.9 million followers

FC Barcelona +2.9 million followers

Liverpool +2.4 million followers

PSG +2.2 million followers

Manchester United +1.6 million followers

Bayern Munich +1.4 million followers

Manchester city +1.2 million followers

Chelsea +1.2 million followers

Most Followed; Here are the top most followed football clubs on Instagram.

Real Madrid 62.3 million followers

Barcelona 59.1 million followers

Manchester United 23.1 million followers

Juventus 14.8 million followers

PSG 14.4 million followers

Bayern Munich 13.7 million followers

Chelsea 12.5 million followers

Arsenal 11.8 million followers

Liverpool 8.8 million followers

Manchester City 7.9 million followers

At the end of the day soccer prediction sites may be trending, but they still have a long way to go in meeting the fastest growing football clubs on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, perhaps with some more accurate predictions and good reputation, they would get close.

Liverpool make Sadio Mane their new number 10 ahead of the new season

Liverpool have ended their pursuit of Olympique Lyon’s Nabil Fekir after they decided to make Sadio Mane their new number 10.

The Reds have been looking to replace Philippe Coutinho this summer, but a move for Fekir fell through after he failed his medicals.

Reports emerged this week that Liverpool are planning to restart talks with the French giants for Fekir, but after landing Allison for a record £65 million fee, Jurgen Klopp told the club’s media that; ‘we have all we need’.

This would be a major blow to most Liverpool fans who have been excited by the new arrivals at Anfield but were also hoping to see Fekir added to their team.

The Reds have also confirmed that Sadio Mane would be taking over the number 10 shirt vacated by Philippe Coutinho last winter.

The Senegalese attacker has become one of Klopp’s most important players and he netted 20 goals in all competitions for the Reds last season. Their fans would be hoping the jersey would see him perform even better when the new campaign gets underway.

How to Make Money Online as A Football Fan

Did you know that you can make a great fortune online if you are a top-notch football fan? Yes, you can! the world is transforming fast. As the digital age continues to advance, most opportunities for earning decent amount are found online.

One of the most advanced ways of earning money online is through soccer prediction.

What is football prediction?

Soccer prediction is in more ways than one reminiscent of any gambling technique you can think of. It involves predetermining the probability that a certain football team will either win the match, draw or lose.

Depending on the football prediction site you are using, there may be other options to stake your money on such as the player who will score, how many goals that will be scored, and the approximate timeframe where key events in the game may take place.

It may seem quite easy based on the aforementioned descriptions, but nothing good comes easy. The truth is, you can earn so much money if you selectively choose your odds.

Here is why:

Quick facts about the football industry

Football ranks among the most loved sports worldwide. It is so advanced that at least there is some evidence of a football supporter in every country of the world.

Besides commanding a great support, the football industry Is also a rich industry. Actually, soccer players are among the most paid employees in the world.

Soccer is played every day. It may not be on a daily basis in a particular country, but when you look at it on a worldwide scale, at least there is a match to be played in some country every day.

This makes football prediction online very efficient since it can be a daily activity for you if you decide to invest in it.

How to make money from football prediction?

It is beyond any reasonable doubt that you can earn more than some employed fellows by just predicting football matches online.

But how can you exactly do that?

Make use of any offers available

While starting out on any niche, football notwithstanding, you may not exactly know the rules of the game. This may make you accumulate several loses which will perennially make you broke.

However, when it comes to matters of football, there are football prediction sites which can offer you free football prediction tips.

As a starter, you can make use of such offers before you can rise to another level of football prediction dominance.

Choose your prediction site wisely

Football prediction sites simplify the task of match analysis by providing you with the most feasible probabilities of winning.

However, some of these sites do not have your interests at heart – only your money. As a result, they may end up reaping from your pockets while you aren’t getting anything to replace your pocket worth.

Choosing your prediction site wisely will increase your chances of winning.

Don’t put “all your eggs in one basket”

The safest way to earn without losing everything as a football prediction specialist is staking on different matches. This is profitable since a certain match may not end as you predicted. When that happens, at least you will have a plan B to rely on when luck smiles at you.

As mentioned above, there are several games that are played every day. You can choose to stake on multiple games or several individual games to spread the risk and increase your chances of winning.

Conclusion

There are always opportunities of earning money online. You need to attend any degree course to find that out. However, it is only those who play smart who can reap big – especially when it comes to football prediction.

What you need to know about Sports betting in the USA after the Supreme Court ruling

The United States Supreme recent ruling court has struck down a 26 years ban on sports betting the country, leaving individual states to decide if they want to legalize soccer bettings in their terrain or not. Here is what you need to know about it the ruling:

When can you start betting?

Sooner than you think, but it depends on where you live. Some states like Delaware, New Jersey and Mississippi has agreed to start accepting legal bets within seven days.

Three other states were already prepared for this landmark decision so they already had laws ready to authorize sports betting in the event of a supreme court ruling. There would be discussions nationwide in the next few days, but most states already have active legislation ready to legalize sports betting.

Who will accept the bets?

Different states have different rules for this. Some states have authorized commercial casinos to start accepting sports betting, while some will offer sports betting through state lotteries only.

However, lawmakers are expected to make the decision whether to allow bets at Casinos, off-track betting parlours, racing tracks, etc.

What does it mean for the American leagues?

The US professional leagues have fought had to keep this law, but they still maintain that they are open to sports betting on their teams. Now that the ban has been overturned, the MLS NBA and others would be looking to continue lobbying for a percentage of the fee made by bookmakers to be given to them.

Some people who favour gambling believe that this has opened the door for more money to the teams through sponsorship with Mark Cuban claiming:

“I think everybody who owns top-four professional sports team just basically saw the value of their team double at least,”

Liverpool assistant manager quits just two days before Champions League return leg against AS Roma

Liverpool’s assistant manager Zeljko Buvac has quit as Jurgen Klopp’s number two just two days before the return leg of their Champions League semi-final against AS Roma.

The former Mainz 05 star has been on Klopp’s coaching staff for the past 17 years after they both played together at Mainz. He has been described as the brain behind Klopp’s Gengepressing style, but their relationship was said to have hit the rocks recently.

Buvac has previously described their working relationship this way:

“As players, there was a direct connection straight away,

“Both of us were looking to become managers and we promised each other, “If I am the first manager, I will take you and if you are the first manager you will take me. He came first. It is a friendship.”

The players are said to be stunned at this development, however, Liverpool Echo claims he has not quit the Reds yet, but would be “absent for the rest of the season due to personal reasons.”

The duo were said to have stopped talking to each other for a while now and he was even ignored for their recent team meetings.

a source claimed:

“The relationship had broken down, and the players have been told Buvac is gone.”

Liverpool v Stoke City Preview: Klopp to rotate?

Liverpool hope to close the gap on second-place Manchester United this weekend, but their European duties means they must manage priorities when they host relegation-threatened Stoke City.

Dilemmas for Klopp

Had Liverpool seen out Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg with a five goal lead over AS Roma, they could put all their energies into this clash. Instead, the soft concession of two late goals puts the score at 5-2, meaning that Wednesday’s trip to Italy for the second leg takes precedence.

Jurgen Klopp’s side won’t be helped by the injury to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has recently excelled in a central role and is out with a long-term injury.

James Milner and Jordan Henderson might not want to play three 90-minute games in little over a week and with alternative central options limited, Klopp has hinted at switching to a 3-4-3 so that he only has to pick two midfielders rather than three.

Georginio Wijnaldum is likely to be one of them and with Emre Can and Adam Lallana injured, academy graduates Curtis Jones and Herbie Kane have an outside chance of making their first professional appearance.

Nathaniel Clyne could start over the in-form Trent Alexander-Arnold to get back to full fitness, having been out of competitive action for 10 months prior to April. Similarly, Andrew Robertson’s lung-busting qualities might be saved for Rome, making Alberto Moreno likely to play.

At least two of Danny Ings, Dominic Solanke and Ben Woodburn could start; although able, neither are unlikely to strike fear to quite the same extent that Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah would.

Klopp will have to be creative with his team selection, whilst keeping enough quality on the pitch to secure victory.

The Shaqiri conundrum

Given that Xherdan Shaqiri has seven goals and six assists to his name this season, nobody could deny that he is Stoke City’s most technically gifted player. And yet, what he offers the Potters in possession perhaps masks what he doesn’t offer them without the ball.

The problem is not that Shaqiri doesn’t work hard at all – he will close down an opposing player if asked to – but with an apprehension that puts him at a disadvantage. Other withdrawn forwards, by contrast, would charge down defenders with the necessary vigour to either win the ball or significantly disrupt the rhythm of the opposing team. Shaqiri’s reluctance to do this means that Stoke find it harder to press effectively, which is a key requirement of a team battling relegation; especially for a trip to Anfield.

Whenever Shaqiri is at his best, his teammates play quality passes into his feet and then flood the final third with bold forward runs. Stoke are only able to do that for short bursts within games, because Paul Lambert’s demand for defensive focus means most players spend a lot of the time in their own half.

A case in point is Moritz Bauer: whether he plays on the right or left side of midfield, the utility man will spend a lot of time tracking back the opposition full-back so that Kurt Zouma or Erik Pieters, neither of whom are the quickest full-backs around, are not isolated two-on-one.

Winger Ramadan Sobhi has pace but perhaps not the technical accuracy to justify the early hype that surrounded him, while advanced forward Mame Biram Diouf must be more ruthless in front of goal than he was in Sunday’s 1-1 home draw with Burnley.

In another 1-1, which came at West Ham six days earlier, Joe Allen tended to run back into Stoke’s penalty area if a teammate gave the ball away and we can expect to see more of that at Anfield, to ensure that the centre-backs – especially Ryan Shawcross – are never asked to defend wide, open spaces.

That danger is partly why midfielder Badou N’Diaye, who has proved effective at breaking up play with his strong challenges, very rarely breaks into the final third.

The above would suggest that Stoke cannot give Shaqiri the support he needs in the 10 role. With Peter Crouch unlikely to become anything more than a super-sub, Lambert might be tempted to partner Diouf with Tyrese Campbell. The latter’s mobility would help Stoke both press with intensity and pose a threat in the transitional phases; otherwise, they risk giving Shaqiri a job that he simply does not have the appropriate skillset to do.

MatchPlug’s Prediction

We’re backing the 1-0 home win, which is 15/2 with Betway as of 25th April. While fiscipline won’t be a problem for Stoke, a second string Liverpool side will have quality in reserve.

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