MANCHESTER UNITED and Liverpool face a monumental ‘Battle of Britain’ in the Europa League after being drawn together in the Round of 16.
The stakes are always high whenever these bitter rivals meet – regardless of the competition or their respective positions in the league.
And the potential prize this time is enormous.
The Europa League may be very much the poor relation when it comes to European club competition and it’s often not taken seriously by Premier League clubs who view it as something of a hindrance to league progress.
But with the winners of the competition now awarded a place in the following season’s Champions League, there is an extra incentive – not that United and Liverpool ever need added motivation when they clash!
Incredibly, England’s two most successful sides in European competition have never played each other in Europe and with both likely to finish outside the top four in the Premier League, winning the Europa League looks to be their only hope of mixing it with the continent’s elite next season.
As the Sun reports: “The draw creates a potentially defining 11-day run for embattled United boss Louis van Gaal.
“The Red Devils will face an FA Cup quarter-final tie with West Ham before a must-win Premier League match with city rivals Manchester City alongside their Europa League double-header.”
Despite Van Gaal having won all four of his league matches against Liverpool since arriving at Old Trafford, including last month’s win at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp welcomed the draw.
The Liverpool boss told the Daily Express: “That’s great, really. We deserve these games. It is not easy but you can ask my staff. They asked me yesterday, ‘Who do we want?’ and I said, ‘Manchester United’. I think we have to clear something.
“We had a good game when I was here, but we lost 1-0. That was not what we deserved that day but that is what we got. Life has given us a chance to make it better and that is what we have to do and what we’ll try to do. In this round there were no easy games, so we had no chance for an easy game. So we have Manchester United – cool.”
Will Klopp get his revenge or can Van Gaal maintain his impressive record over the men from Anfield?
Europa League draw in full:
Shakhtar Donetsk v Anderlecht
Basle v Sevilla
Villarreal v Bayer Leverkusen
Athletico Bilbao v Valencia
Liverpool v Manchester United
Sparta Prague v Lazio
Borussia Dortmund v Tottenham
Fenerbahce v Braga
Games will be played on March 10 and 17.
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Druid
Feb 28, 2016 at 8:22 pm
Very fortuitous draw for both clubs – At least one of them will advance one more round.