Europa League: Alisson, Jota ruled out as depleted Liverpool looks to march into round of 16

Liverpool will be without goalkeeper Alisson Becker and forward Diogo Jota for the upcoming Europa League clash against Lask, its manager Jurgen Klopp told reporters on Wednesday.

Alisson, who pulled his hamstring during the Premier League clash against Manchester City, completed the match despite the injury but now stares at missing out at least two weeks of action.

Jota, on the other hand, looked to have suffered a muscle injury, which was diagnosed after the match. The Portuguese forward was replaced by Luis Diaz in the second half in the City clash, with Klopp saying, “The shadow on this game is obviously that Ali felt something and Diogo felt something – something we have to assess and then we will see.”

Speaking at the press conference before the Europe League match, Klopp confirmed that both with be out for a considerable amount of time.

“Both are out. Ali is a bit lesser, so we have to see. Not day by day — he will not play tomorrow, not on Sunday, probably not the week after. Then it should be kind of OK,” Klopp said ahead of the Europa League visit of LASK on Thursday.

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“Diogo will take a little bit longer. We don’t know exactly how long, but it’s a bit more severe. We have to see. Alisson is not as bad (as we thought), but still bad enough.”

Klopp further urged fans to treat their Europa League group-stage match as a “special night” as his side look to seal qualification for the knockout rounds.

Liverpool tops Group E with nine points from five games, two ahead of Toulouse, after being beaten 3-2 by the Ligue 1 side earlier this month. A win against LASK would ensure Liverpool’s progress to the last 16 and put it in pole position to finish top of the group.

“We are in the beginning of the most intense period of the whole season. We play now Thursday-Sunday, it’s super tough,” Klopp told reporters on Wednesday. “… what we have to have tomorrow is an atmosphere.

“We have to make sure that this is a European night and that is what I expect us to do – a proper European night at Anfield, really going for it. I will line up a team with fresh legs who want to go for it, enjoy the game and will really fight for a result.

“If Anfield wants to do that as well, that would be massively helpful. We have to show that Anfield is a wonderful place to come, but also a horrible place to come in the same moment.”

(with inputs from Reuters)