Liverpool urged to keep focus as fixture pile-up looms

Mohamed Salah, center, is considered doubts for the trip to Palace, with injuries he collected earlier this month. (Reuters/File)
Updated 23 November 2019
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Liverpool urged to keep focus as fixture pile-up looms

  • Liverpool visit Aston Villa on Dec. 17 in the cup quarter-final before they play in the Middle East on the 18th

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool start a daunting run of 13 games in 41 days at Crystal Palace on Saturday that will define their season and, quite possibly, how the Jurgen Klopp era will be remembered at Anfield.

The spectacular, and controversial, 3-1 victory over defending champions Manchester City before the international break has left Liverpool nine points clear of Pep Guardiola’s side.

They hold an eight-point edge over second-placed Leicester and are heavy favorites to end a painful 30-year wait for a league title.

The visit to Selhurst Park also starts a sequence of five league games against opponents who appear, on paper at least, not to offer too stern a test for a team that have dropped just two league points all season — in a 1-1 draw at Manchester United.

But it is Liverpool’s schedule away from the league that has caused the greatest degree of interest and speculation in recent weeks.

Their involvement in the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar, plus their success in the League Cup, means Klopp will be forced to play two games within 24 hours of each other, over 4,000 miles apart.

Liverpool visit Aston Villa on Dec. 17 in the cup quarter-final before they play in the Middle East on the 18th, with Klopp fielding two different squads to cope with the congestion.

The Liverpool boss concedes that the exact nature and logistics of putting out two teams on different continents within a matter of hours had yet to be addressed.

But a number of pundits, led by former Anfield favorite Jamie Carragher, have argued that Klopp should effectively ignore the four cup competitions in which his team are involved this season — the two domestic cups, Champions League and Club World Cup.

The obsession among the red half of Merseyside with winning the title increased with the near-miss under Brendan Rodgers in 2014.

And it reached near-fever pitch in May, when they lost the title to City by 1 point. Not even the considerable consolation of winning the Champions League in June could dull the desire from Liverpool supporters to see their team lift a trophy they last won under Kenny Dalglish in 1990. “I know a lot of Liverpool supporters wouldn’t say this, and certainly the club couldn’t, but nothing can get in the way of Liverpool winning the league. Nothing,” said Carragher.

“The Aston Villa game in the Carabao (League) Cup? If Liverpool get through they will have two semifinals to play then and that cannot get in the way of Liverpool winning the league.”

Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson are considered doubts for the trip to Palace, with injuries they collected earlier this month.

But Joe Gomez and Jordan Henderson, who both pulled out of England’s game in Kosovo last weekend, are expected to be fit to return.


Kane scores as Bayern deliver comeback romp over Leipzig

Updated 17 January 2026
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Kane scores as Bayern deliver comeback romp over Leipzig

  • The victory restores Bayern’s 11-point lead atop the ladder over second-placed Borussia Dortmund
  • Leipzig took a first-half lead through Romulo, but Bayern kicked into gear after the break

LEIPZIG, Germany: Harry Kane scored his 21st goal of the Bundesliga season as Bayern Munich came from behind to win 5-1 at RB Leipzig on Saturday.
The victory restores Bayern’s 11-point lead atop the ladder over second-placed Borussia Dortmund, while continuing their record-breaking campaign.
Unbeaten Bayern have dropped just four points on their way to a record-equalling tally of 50 after 18 games. Bayern’s total of 71 goals scored is also a record at this stage of a German league season.
Leipzig took a first-half lead through Romulo, but Bayern kicked into gear after the break, Serge Gnabry, Kane, Jonathan Tah, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Michael Olize all scoring.
Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said Leipzig were “twice as good as we were” in the opening half, adding “but in the second-half — my god, the boys delivered.
“We weren’t afraid and we really went for it.”
Leipzig goalscorer Romulo said “we played 75 minutes really on top, then I don’t know what happened, we turned off our minds. We have to learn something out of that.”
Leipzig were strong early and broke through after 20 minutes when Romulo snuck past Bayern’s Tah to poke in an Antonio Nusa pass from close range.
The hosts were undone in the simplest fashion just after half-time. Dayot Upamecano picked Christoph Baumgartner’s pocket and fed Gnabry, who guided the ball into the bottom corner.
Bayern took the lead after 67 minutes, once again thanks to a Leipzig mistake.
Olize’s floated cross looked harmless until Ridle Baku lost his footing, allowing an unmarked Kane time and space to blast home.
With Leipzig’s resistance broken, Tah, Pavlovic and Olize all scored in the final 10 minutes, while Jamal Musiala returned late off the bench after a six-month injury absence.

- Can rescues Dortmund -
Earlier, an Emre Can penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time saved Borussia Dortmund’s blushes in a 3-2 home win against lowly St. Pauli.
In the dying moments, VAR found a foul on Germany forward Maximilian Beier, bringing Dortmund captain Can to the spot.
“What a rollercoaster ride,” Can told Sky Germany.
“We need to do much better to settle things down and to convert our chances,” he added.
The hosts overcame a poor first half when Julian Brandt tapped in from close range just before the break. Having created the opener, Karim Adeyemi gave Dortmund a two-goal buffer in the 54th minute, converting a Fabio Silva assist.
Rock-bottom St. Pauli had won just once since September but fought back into the game when James Sands and Ricky-Jade Jones scored inside 10 minutes midway through the second half to stun the hosts.
Deep into stoppage time, Jones caught Beier on the edge of the penalty area, allowing Can to convert nervelessly from the spot.
Elsewhere, Hoffenheim’s Wouter Burger scored the only goal in a 1-0 home win over flailing Bayer Leverkusen to climb past Leipzig into third in the table.
Burger swung in an excellent free-kick after nine minutes to give the hosts the three points.
“That was an important one,” Burger said of his free-kick. “I was practicing them a bit this morning.”
Relegation candidates last season, Hoffenheim are on track to qualify for Europe’s top competition for just the second time in their history, having last done so under now-Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann in 2017/18.
Leverkusen have now lost four of their past six, falling three points behind the Champions League placings.
Cologne beat Mainz 2-1 at home, Wolfsburg played out a 1-1 home draw with Heidenheim and hosts Hamburg were held to a scoreless draw by Borussia Moenchengladbach.