Sports Blog 07/04/2016: UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final 1st Leg Preview – Borussia Dortmund vs Liverpool, Thursday 7th April 2016

How will Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool fare when the German manager returns to Borussia Dortmund for the first time at 8.05pm on BT Sport Europe?

As has been the case for the entire season, the last month and a half has seen Liverpool veer between heady highs and embarrassing lows. Domestically an impressive 3-0 victory over Manchester City and an incredibly late win over Crystal Palace were countered by a woeful 3-2 capitulation against Southampton, and, most recently, a 1-1 draw against Spurs that saw the Reds through away a 1-0 lead courtesy of Philippe Coutinho (the club’s top scorer on a meagre 10 goals, with a Super Mega PGM of 9-13). Whilst that form may leave them in 9th place, Liverpool do have 2 games in hand over many of the other teams fighting for a place in Europe, including a Merseyside Derby towards the end of the month.

That domestic run was joined by perhaps their sweetest moment of the season, knocking Manchester United out of the Europa League with a 3-1, 2 leg triumph in their last 16 fixture. The Reds are actually yet to lose in Europe this season, even if 6 of their 10 ties have ended up as draws. Slightly more worrying is the fact that Liverpool have only managed 10 goals in 10 games in the Europa League, something that pales in comparison to the 18 scored but their quarter-final foes.



Another concern for Liverpool will be the way in which Borussia Dortmund breezed past Tottenham in the last 16. Similar to the way in which Spurs’ North London rivals Arsenal were blown away by Barca in the Champions League, Dortmund’s 5-1 win over the Premier League title-contenders puts forward the latest in a long line of examples suggesting English football no longer occupies the same space as the German and Spanish leagues. And it’s not even as if Dortmund are top of the table; they sit 5 points adrift of Bayern Munich in 2nd place. On paper a surmountable gap; in reality it is something far more imposing.

Yet Dortmund will likely be satisfied with the way they have bounced back after last season’s Chelsea-esque dip to 7th place following their phenomenally bad pre-Christmas run. This time around, and with Klopp gone, things have been different; Dortmund have only lost 3 games in the league (drawing 4 and winning 21), denied the top spot more due to Bayern’s brilliance than their own failings. They’ve also got a DFB-Pokal semi-final to look forward to later in the month, whilst Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, at a Super Mega PGM of 47-55, has only improved, 7 of his 33 goals this season coming in the Europe League, the 2nd highest tally in the competition so far.

In other words, Liverpool might be a bit out of their depth when they travel to the Signal Iduna Park on Thursday evening. Our Spreadex traders seem to think so, at least, offering a Borussia Dortmund/Liverpool Goal Supremacy spread of 0.9-1.1 with a Total Goals spread of 2.75-2.95.

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