Liverpool will travel to Stadium TFC today at 5.45pm to face Toulouse, knowing that a win will all but confirm their progression from their Europa League group.
Toulouse currently sit in third place behind Belgian side Union St Gilloise, who have a +2 goal difference than the French club. They will be hoping that they can take full advantage of their home fans backing them, with revenge on their minds from the 5-1 reverse fixture at Anfield.
Liverpool will be fully aware that a win would put them even further in the driving seat to achieve top spot in Group E, with the chasing pack looking like having to settle for that coveted second place.
The Reds have scored ten goals whilst only conceding twice whereas Toulouse have only scored three times but conceded seven times, mostly at the hands of their English opponents.
Liverpool have a very poor record when it comes to playing in France, with their most recent loss coming against PSG where they lost 2-1 courtesy of goals from Bernat and Neymar, before James Milner scored a penalty on the stroke of halftime.
They will be hoping that their Europa League record this season will be enough to overcome this unwanted statistic.
Team News
Toulouse will be without winger Zakaria Aboukhlal, who has been out for eight matches with a knee injury.
Oliver Zanden and Denis Genreau will both sit out of this fixture with a hip and a back injury keeping them on the sidelines.
The majority of the team that lost to Liverpool were fielded against Le Havre on Sunday, where they lost 2-1 at home after two late goals from Mohamed Bayo.
Curtis Jones is a doubt for Thursday’s game, with the U21 England international having a “minor fitness issue” that kept him out of the 1-1 clash against Luton Town and Ryan Gravenberch has picked up a slight knee issue as reported in Jurgen Klopp's most recent press conference.
Liverpool have no fresh injury concerns, with Thiago, Andrew Robertson, Stefan Bajcetic and Conor Bradley all out for the foreseeable future.
It is likely that Alexis MacAllister will feature in Europe, after the World Cup winner received his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season against Luton, which will make him unavailable to play against Brentford on Sunday.
19-year-old left back, Luke Chambers, could also feature in order to give Kostas Tsimikas a rest ahead of the weekend’s game.
Toulouse predicted lineup: Restes, Suazo, Nicolaisen, Costa, Desler, Casseres Jr, Spierings, Schmidt, Magri, Dallinga, Donnum
Liverpool predicted lineup: Kelleher, Gomez, Quansah, Matip, Chambers, Endo, MacAllister, Elliot, Diaz, Gakpo, Doak
Prediction
Toulouse will fully utilise the power of their home advantage which should give them a massive sense of confidence coming into this game.
I believe that Toulouse will take the lead in the first half, leading 1-0 after 45 minutes before Liverpool bring on reinforcements off the bench.
Players such as Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah could prove to be the difference, and I think Liverpool will turn around their deficit to win 3-1, and in turn, put them fully in the driving seat in Group E.
How to watch the game
The match will be shown on TNT Sports in the United Kingdom, Paramount Plus in the US and DAZN in Canada.
By Callum Burgess - https://twitter.com/Calstagram123
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