Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino have been ruled out of Liverpool’s Champions League semifinal second leg at Anfield on Tuesday night against Barcelona.
Salah suffered a concussion in the win over Newcastle on Saturday, while Firmino made a brief appearance at the Camp Nou.
Jurgen Klopp’s side will be hoping to make a heroic comeback to reach their second consecutive final and get their first title since 2005, while Barcelona last won the tournament in 2015 against Juventus in Berlin.
Liverpool have lost just once in 21 games in all competition and are coming off a 3-2 win at St. James’ Park which kept their title hopes alive until the final day of the season.
The Reds come into Tuesday unbeaten in 19 games at Anfield and have won by three goals on nine occasions at home this season.
Barcelona have been defeated once in 24 games which came on the weekend when Ernesto Valverde sent a rotated side to play Celta Vigo and lost 2-0.
The Blaugrana have won both of their trips to England this season, beating Tottenham and most recently Manchester United on their way to the last four.
Lionel Messi’s brilliance last week gave the Spanish champions a three-goal lead to take to Anfield, and they have won their previous two trips to Merseyside.
Liverpool last hosted Spanish opposition in 2017 when they drew 2-2 with Sevilla in the group stage.
Ousmane Dembele was forced off with another hamstring injury against Vigo on Saturday and has been ruled out, he will join Rafinha on the sideline.
Kickoff is at 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon at Anfield. The game will be streamed in Canada on DAZN.
Projected lineups:
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Milner, Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Henderson; Mané, Origi.
FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Roberto, Rakitić, Busquets, Vidal; Suárez, Messi.
Pierre's Footy Talk 