As coronavirus wreaks havoc on both sides, Leicester City make the journey to Anfield to face Liverpool in this EFL Cup quarter final. How will the teams line up and what will happen in this exciting cup match-up?
With the threat of COVID-19 hanging over both clubs, Leicester City travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup on Wednesday evening.
Leicester manager, Brendan Rodgers, returns to face his former club, having seen his team go through an enforced 10-day hiatus due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, Liverpool are in the middle of a run of four matches in 10 days.
In Reds squad news, Thiago Alcântara has joined Curtis Jones and Fabinho in testing positive for coronavirus, while Harvey Elliott is still nursing a serious ankle injury.
Jordan Henderson missed the Tottenham game at the weekend, due to a non-COVID related illness, and is doubtful for this game too, with Jürgen Klopp not likely to take any risks with his skipper.
Tyler Morton and James Milner could both, therefore, be named in the XI again, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be pushing for a return to the starting line-up.
Andrew Robertson will serve his suspension following his red card against Spurs, so Kostas Tsimikas could feature at left-back, while Virgil van Dijk is still in isolation after his own positive COVID test.
Fringe players like Takumi Minamino, Neco Williams, Joe Gomez, and Caoimhín Kelleher should come into the side, with the former having scored five goals in his four League Cup appearances.
Leicester’s list of absentees could be even longer than Liverpool’s, although it remains to be seen just how badly their coronavirus outbreak continues to affect them, after missing their last two games.
Jannik Vestergaard, Ayoze Perez, Ademola Lookman, Kelechi Iheanacho, Filip Benković, Hamza Choudhury and Vontae Daley-Campbell are among the players to have returned positive COVID-19 tests, meaning that all of them could miss out.
Both outfits will likely be fielding makeshift sides amid differing stages of coronavirus outbreaks, so the result is hard to predict. However, we are going for a 2-0 Liverpool win, with a goal scored in each half.
Liverpool possible starting XI:
Kelleher; Williams, Gomez, Konaté, Tsimikas; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Morton, Milner; Gordon, Firmino, Minamino
Leicester City possible starting XI:
Schmeichel; Albrighton, Amartey, Ndidi, Bertrand; Tielemans, Soumaré; Maddison, Dewsbury-Hall, Barnes; Daka
