{"id":69117,"date":"2024-03-09T05:24:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T05:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/nunez-brace-helps-liverpool-sink-sparta-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-03-09T05:24:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T05:24:05","slug":"nunez-brace-helps-liverpool-sink-sparta-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/nunez-brace-helps-liverpool-sink-sparta-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Nunez brace helps Liverpool sink Sparta | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nPRAGUE:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Darwin Nunez’s brace lifted Liverpool within sight of the Europa League quarter-finals as they swept to a 5-1 win in the last 16 first leg at Sparta Prague on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Star striker Mohamed Salah<\/a> returned to the squad as a second-half substitute from an injury that had restrained him to only play 46 minutes for Liverpool since his early retreat from the Africa Cup of Nations in January.<\/p>\n

“Sparta took risks, we punished them for that,” said Liverpool<\/a> manager Jurgen Klopp.<\/p>\n

“We scored wonderful goals and we had really good moments in the game.”<\/p>\n

Alexis Mac Allister opened the score against the reigning Czech champions and top flight leaders with a sixth minute penalty after being brought down by Asger Sorensen in the box.<\/p>\n

Nunez added a second with a long-range shot from outside the box over diving Sparta goalkeeper Peter Vindahl in the 25th minute.<\/p>\n

The Uruguay striker made it 3-0 in first half stoppage time with a low blast from just inside the box to the far post.<\/p>\n

“He has the most important attitude a striker needs to have in these chances,” said Klopp.<\/p>\n

“He’s just a constant threat and he gives us some spaces and areas and options.”<\/p>\n

Conor Bradley came on as a half-time substitute and the game turned sour for him 40 seconds later as he slammed Sparta winger Veljko Birmancevic’s cross into his own net.<\/p>\n

Luis Diaz, however, made it 4-1 on 53 minutes, beating Vindahl with a deflected shot and Dominik Szoboszlai, also returning from injury as a second-half substitute, rounded off the score in the stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Salah found the net six minutes from time but his goal was disallowed as VAR caught him offside.<\/p>\n

Liverpool have all but secured a place in the March 15 draw for the quarter-finals, which will also reveal their potential semi-final opponents.<\/p>\n

The Reds controlled much of the game while Sparta relied largely on breaks.<\/p>\n

The hosts came close several times but goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher stopped unmarked Lukas Haraslin’s close-range effort with his fingertips and Birmancevic then missed a gaping net.<\/p>\n

“The result’s much better than the performance,” said Klopp.<\/p>\n

“Our protection was not good and so they could create these counter-attacks. We lost a few unnecessary balls which is then difficult to protect.”<\/p>\n

“We made mistakes, that’s human, but we fought really hard and I saw in the dressing room afterwards the boys felt the intensity of the game and were happy about the result.”<\/p>\n

Klopp made three changes from Saturday’s Premier League game against Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n

Captain Virgil van Dijk only came on as a second-half substitute with Andrew Robertson wearing the band on his Europa League debut.<\/p>\n

Liverpool are eyeing a remarkable quadruple in Klopp’s final season as manager at Anfield as they have won the League Cup and are through to the last eight of the FA Cup.<\/p>\n

They also top the Premier League, one point ahead of Manchester City whom they face on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRAGUE: Darwin Nunez’s brace lifted Liverpool within sight of the Europa League quarter-finals as they swept to a 5-1 win in the last 16 first leg at Sparta Prague on Thursday. Star striker Mohamed Salah returned to the squad as a second-half substitute from an injury that had restrained him to only play 46 minutes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/Salah-2-11709894499-0\/Salah-2-11709894499-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}