Manchester United v Liverpool - Preview

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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal feels his side "must deliver" in their Europa League last-16 second leg tie against Liverpool on Thursday.

A desperately poor performance from the Red Devils saw them lose 2-0 in the first leg at Anfield last week.

United have failed to win in their last three matches in all competitions.

"It starts with the players, of course, but it starts also with the fans. They have a lot of impact on the pitch," said Dutchman Van Gaal.

The meeting against rivals Liverpool comes a week before the 32nd anniversary of one of their greatest comebacks.

Trailing 2-0 to Barcelona in the European Cup Winners' Cup, United won 3-0 at Old Trafford to reach the semi-finals.

They were also 2-1 down to Danish side FC Midtjylland after the first leg in the previous round, before winning 5-1 in the second.

"We have to believe in it," said Van Gaal when asked if they can rescue the tie. "I have spoken only with the players about the victory.

"We always owe to the fans a big result because the fans are paying to see that. We have to deliver."

'We can finish the job'

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal pointed to the atmosphere at Anfield being the difference for Liverpool

Liverpool last won the competition in 2001 - in its guise as the Uefa Cup - and it remains their only opportunity to win a trophy this season.

Their energetic performance in the first leg allowed them to open up an advantage which boss Jurgen Klopp feels they can keep hold of.

"We know about the job we have to do," said the German. "We will try to play similar or more intensive.

"I am absolutely optimistic [that my team will put in a good performance]. We know that we know how to play them.

"It was a good night for us last week. But at the same time it's only halfway. We'll go into the game confident we can finish the job."

Winger Ashley Young and full-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson will not be risked by Manchester United and midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is not ready to start.

Liverpool midfielder James Milner returns after missing the first leg through illness but the visitors are still likely to be without defender Martin Skrtel, who has been out with a hamstring injury.

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Liverpool Fail in Moscow Mission

Liverpool were usurped at the top of their Europa League group by Anzhi Makhachkala after an under-strength side lost 1-0 in Moscow.

Lacina Traore's fine individual goal in first-half stoppage-time was enough to send Guus Hiddink's oligarch-backed side to the top of Group A and leave the visitors' hopes of reaching the knockout stage in the balance.

Brendan Rodgers left the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez at home with one eye on Sunday's trip to Chelsea but though his inexperienced side toiled keenly, they too rarely threatened Anzhi's goal.

In near-freezing temperatures and in front of a palty crowd - the match played 1,000 miles from Makhachkala for security reasons - it hardly promised to be a classic and there were scant early thrills to reward anyone's journey.

Rasim Tagirbekov found space down the left, only to watch Brad Jones easily claim his weak shot, while 6-foot-8 Traore lingered with intent and almost muscled his way onto a clever through-ball.

A stodgy midfield battle ensued on the patchy turf before Jonjo Shelvey inspired some Liverpool rhythm but promising build-up play fizzled out, John Flanagan dragging a shot well wide, before Jordan Henderson opted for a cut-back that went to waste when the shot was on.

Samuel Eto'o soon had a better chance, his rising strike headed for the top corner until Jones pushed it behind, but Anzhi looked there for the taking until Traore's flash of brilliance.

Mbark Boussoufa's clip forward carried danger but this was about two touches of real quality: a flick over the top of Sebastian Coates and a sidefoot lob over the outrushing Jones.

Rodgers soon sent on the fresh legs of Suso and Dani Pacheco, though departing teenagers Adam Morgan and Conor Coady displayed plenty of endeavour, but Anzhi began to press higher up the pitch and Liverpool struggled to craft real openings.

Traore prowled at the other end but lashed horriby wide of an upright and then headed into Jones' hands from eight yards as Hiddink glowered in the dugout.

Suso had added impetus and forced Vlad Gabulov to parry late on but Joe Cole - disappointing again - saw his shot from an angle blocked and the chance of parity probably undeserved had gone.

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Athletic Comeback at Veltins Arena

Fernando Llorente's two goals helped Athletic Bilbao to a 4-2 comeback win at Schalke in the Europa League quarter-final first leg.

After Llorente put Bilbao ahead in the 20th minute, Schalke's Raul Gonzalez rallied the hosts back in front with two goals either side of half-time.

But Llorente headed in an equaliser in the 73rd minute to turn the high-tempo contest in Bilbao's favour, as Oscar de Marcos and Iker Muniain scored late on at Veltins Arena.

"It was a great game," Llorente said. "It wasn't at all easy because they responded very well to our first goal. What Raul did was incredible. You can't ask anything more of a match."

At Schalke both sides started well but Bilbao struck first through Llorente when he poked in his own rebound that goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand failed to hold on to.

Bilbao's lead lasted two minutes before Raul redirected Atsuto Uchida's cross inside the near post. The former Real Madrid star then made it 2-1 in the 60th minute with a dipping volley from outside the area.

With Schalke pressing for another goal, Llorente muscled past a pair of defenders to flick in a corner for his 25th goal in all competitions.

Bilbao showed the same attacking flair that led them to oust Manchester United in the previous round as De Marcos scored the winner in the 81st off a rebound and Muniain sealed the win in stoppage time on a counterattack.

"We knew they were good on the break, but we let our guard down," the Schalke defender Christian Fuchs said. "Everyone will now be against us but we can still pull off a miracle. We need three goals but anything is possible."

Atlético Madrid beat Hannover 2-1 in the other first-leg quarter-final between Spanish and German teams. Radamel Falcao capitalised on Atlético's early dominance by heading home a free-kick nine minutes in for his seventh goal of the competition this season. The Colombia striker is the Europa League's all-time leading scorer with 22 in 23 appearances.

Hannover levelled through Mame Diouf's 38th-minute goal and looked set to head back to Germany with a positive result until Eduardo Salvio blasted in a shot from long range to give Atlético the victory in the 89th minute.

"Thank God for the goal, it gives us some breathing room heading to Germany," Salvio said.

In the Netherlands the Australia midfielder Brett Holman scored one and created another as AZ Alkmaar got the better of Valencia 2-1.

Holman put AZ in front with a powerful volley in the 45th minute but Mehmet Topal levelled for Valencia six minutes later. Maarten Martens converted Holman's cross from six yards in the 78th minute to earn the win for AZ.

Sporting Lisbon inflicted on the Ukrainian side Metalist Kharkiv their first away defeat in the competition with second-half goals from Marat Izmailov and Emiliano Insua. Izmailov scored from a cross by Diego Capel in the 51st minute and Insua extended the Portuguese club's lead 13 minutes later with a low drive from a free-kick.

Cleiton Xavier got a valuable away goal for Metalist Kharkiv with a 90th-minute penalty.

Athletic Bilbao v Manchester United - Preview

Athletic Bilbao are in the driving seat ahead of the second leg of their Europa League clash with Manchester United following a 3-2 win at Old Trafford.

The Primera Liga club stunned many by securing a remarkable success at the Theatre of Dreams, although it could have been much worse for Sir Alex Ferguson's troops had it not been for Wayne Rooney's injury-time penalty.

Iker Muniain's late strike looked to have almost guaranteed Bilbao a place in the quarter-finals only for Rooney to give the Red Devils a glimmer of hope for the San Mames clash.

The first-leg result means as a minimum that United need to score at least twice to progress while a goal for the home side means the visitors would then require three goals to advance on aggregate.

Only twice have the Manchester giants overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit, their famous 1984 triumph over Barcelona with the other coming in January 1957 following a 3-0 second-leg win over Bilbao at Maine Road.

Bilbao coach Marcelo Bielsa is hoping his team can replicate their display in Manchester, a performance that won high praise.

"I believe that on one night or in one match a team like Athletic can get very close to the level of opponents such as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester United," stated the Argentinian.

Team news

Ferguson has a number of big decisions to make regarding team selection ahead of their must-win clash in Spain on Thursday evening.

Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney all started Sunday's Premier League success over West Brom, meaning Dimitar Berbatov is likely to again settle for a place on the substitutes' bench.

United are boosted by the return of Ecuador international winger Antonio Valencia, who is available following a four-week absence due to a hamstring injury.

The ex-Wigan Athletic man has trained this week and gives the visitors a useful option out wide with Nani among those who did not travel to northern Spain.

Midfielder Anderson is definitely out due to a hamstring strain while Phil Jones (flu) is also missing along with England international defender Chris Smalling (head).

For the home side Bielsa is playing a cagey game regarding team selection, although he did reveal midfielder Oscar de Marcos, one of last week's goalscorers, was doubtful after being struck down by a flu virus.

Target-man Fernando Llorente is expected to lead the line for Bilbao with support from Muniain and Markel Susaeta.

Sion Ban Upheld For Celtic Match

FC Sion's Europa League ban has been upheld by a court in Switzerland.

The Swiss club were thrown out of the competition for fielding ineligible players in their qualifying tie against Celtic, leading to the Scottish side's reinstatement.

Two courts had ruled Sion could register six players despite a Uefa-imposed transfer ban and should be reinstated in the Europa League.

But world governing body Fifa appealed successfully to the higher court.

Sion's hopes of a Europa League return rest on a 24 November hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

The six players joined Sion in the close season when the club was serving a ban - lasting two transfer windows - for breaching rules in the signing of Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadary in 2008.

The players won the right to play in August after taking their case to a court in Martigny, Switzerland, and the club won an injunction ordering their reinstatement at a further hearing at one of the country's civil courts, this time in Vaud.

As a result, the Swiss Football League (SFL) backed down from enforcing the Fifa ban in domestic competitions.

But Fifa announced in a statement that their appeal against the Martigny ruling had been successful.

"The Valais cantonal court in Sion overturned the decision of the civil court of Martigny and St Maurice of 3 August in its entirety and fully upheld the appeal submitted by Fifa and the Swiss Football League," said the statement.

Uefa insisted that Cas was the only valid authority with jurisdiction over the matter, after Sion claimed Uefa denied the club access to an "independent and impartial judge" and breached the players' working rights under the European Union-Swiss treaty.

Sion are being helped in their case against Uefa by Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer who won the landmark Jean-Marc Bosman ruling in 1995.

If their appeal to Cas is successful, Uefa would have to find a way of reinstating Sion in the Europa League, which is currently two-thirds of the way through the group stages, with knockout rounds to follow next year.

Sporting Fingal Lose Out to Maritimo

Sporting Fingal's first foray into Europe ended with defeat at the first hurdle going out to Portuguese side CS Maritimo at Dalymount Park.

Fingal went into the game, trailing by 3-2, meaning a 1-0 victory over Maritimo would see the Dubliners through.

However, the home side got off to a slow start with Maritimo displaying their attacking threat with only half a minute gone. 

Baba played in striker Cherrad, who rounded Clarke in the Fingal goal, but he could only fire a tame shot that a sliding Lorcan Fitgerald stopped.

Clarke pulled off two full length saves from long range Martimo shots within the first six minutes with Fingal looking sluggish early on.

The visitors' forays forward became less frequent as the half wore on but their ability to maintain possession for long periods meant the hosts could never get a foothold on the game.

Fingal's hopes suffered a major blow on 20 minutes when Shaun Maher took down Danilo in the Fingal area. The Maltese referee pointed to the spot and Alonso made no mistake and slotted home.

On the rare moments when Sporting were able to create an opening they were reduced to shooting from distance. Conan Byrne sent his first effort on goal high and wide with fifty five minutes gone.

Sporting then thought they had equalised on the hour mark but Ronan Finn's effort was waved away as offside.

Five minutes later Shane McFaul was brought off and Eamon Zayed introduced, with Liam Buckley switching the formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2.

Having proven himself with spectacular saves in the games opening exchanges, Brendan Clarke was beaten at his near post on 67 minutes. Marquinho shot from outside the box and somehow sneaking his shot past Clarke.

With the game looking to have been settled and the crowd beginning to head for the exits, Zayed tapped home a Conan Byrne cross to make it 5-3 on aggregate. 

A minute later and Pecanha pulled off a brilliant close range save to deny Kirby grabbing an equaliser.

Fingal were now piling men forward which left them exposed at the back. On 84 minutes Maritimo could have punished this but substitute Kanu, having beaten the offside trap and rounded Brendan Clarke somehow managed to send his shot inches wide.

Kanu was more clinical five minutes later as Maritimo again caught Fingal on the break the substitute grabbing his sides third.

Zayed made it 3 -2 with a minute of normal time to go, but it was little more than a consolation for the Dublin outfit.

Sporting Fingal: B Clarke; L Fitzgerald, K Browne, S Maher, G O'Brien; C Byrne, R Finn, A Kirby, S McFaul (Zayed 64'), S Williams; G Crowe

CS Maritimo: Pecanha; Ricardo Esteves, Joao Guilherme, Robson, Alonso; Marquinho (Amarai 72'), Danilo, Sousa, Tcho (Kanu 81'); Baba, Cherrad (Fidelis 90') 

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