PRAGUE: Darwin Nunez’s brace brought Liverpool within sight of the Europa League quarter-finals as they clinched a 5-1 win in the first leg of the last-16 phase at Sparta Prague on Thursday.
Star striker Mohamed Salah returned to the squad as a second-half substitute from an injury that had allowed him to only play 46 minutes for Liverpool since his early retreat from the African Cup of Nations in January.
Alexis Mac Allister opened the score against the reigning Czech champions and topflight leaders with a sixth minute penalty after being brought down by Asger Sorensen in the box.
Nunez added a second with a long-range shot from outside the box over diving Sparta goalkeeper Peter Vindahl in the 25th minute.
The Uruguay striker made it 3-0 in the stoppage time of first half with a low blast from just inside the box to the far post.
Conor Bradley came on as a half-time substitute and the game turned sour for him 40 seconds later as he deflected Sparta winger Veljko Birmancevic’s cross into his own net.
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.
Salah found the net six minutes from time but his goal was called off as VAR caught him offside.
Liverpool have all but secured a place in the March 15 draw for the quarter-finals, which will also reveal their potential semifinal opponents.
The Reds controlled much of the game while Sparta relied largely on breaks.
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.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp made three changes from Saturday’s Premier League game against Nottingham Forest.
Captain Virgil van Dijk only came on as a second-half substitute with Andrew Robertson wearing the band on his Europa League debut.
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.
They also top the Premier League, one point ahead of Manchester City whom they face on Sunday.
Nunez brace helps Liverpool sink Sparta as Salah returns
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Nunez brace helps Liverpool sink Sparta as Salah returns
- Star striker Mohamed Salah returned to the squad as a second-half substitute from an injury
- Liverpool have all but secured a place in the March 15 draw for the quarter-finals
FIFA announces $60 World Cup tickets after pricing backlash
PARIS: World Cup organizers unveiled a new cut-price ticket category on Tuesday after a backlash by fans over pricing for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Football’s global governing body FIFA said in a statement that it had created a limited number of “Supporter Entry Tier” fixed at $60 for all 104 matches, including the final.
It said the plan was “designed to further support traveling fans following their national teams across the tournament.”
FIFA said that the $60 tickets would be reserved for fans of qualified teams and would make up 10 percent of each national federation’s allotment.
Fan group Football Supporters Europe , which last week called prices “extortionate” and “astronomical,” responded by saying the FIFA was offering too little.
“While we welcome FIFA’s seeming recognition of the damage its original plans were to cause, the revisions do not go far enough,” FSE said in a statement on Tuesday.
Last week, FSE said ticket prices were almost five times higher than in 2022 in Qatar, describing FIFA’s pricing for 2026 as a “monumental betrayal of the tradition of the World Cup.”
“If a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final it would cost them a minimum of $6,900,” it said at the time, adding that World Cup organizers had promised tickets priced from $21 in a bid document released in 2018.
‘Appeasement tactic’
On Tuesday, FSE said FIFA’s partial ticketing U-turn exposed flaws in how prices for next year’s tournament had been set.
“For the moment we are looking at the FIFA announcement as nothing more than an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash,” FSE said.
“This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush, and without proper consultation — including with FIFA’s own member associations.
“Based on the allocations publicly available, this would mean that at best a few hundred fans per match and team would be lucky enough to take advantage of the 60 US dollar prices, while the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.”
The organization also criticized the failure to make provisions for supporters with disabilities or their companions.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed FSE, stating that FIFA’s cheaper ticket category did not go far enough.
“I welcome FIFA’s announcement of some lower priced supporters tickets,” Starmer wrote on X.
“But as someone who used to save up for England tickets, I encourage FIFA to do more to make tickets more affordable so that the World Cup doesn’t lose touch with the genuine supporters who make the game so special.”
Announcing the $60 tickets on Tuesday, FIFA said that national federations “are requested to ensure that these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams.”
FIFA also said that if fans bought tickets for games in the knockout rounds only to find their team eliminated at an earlier stage, they “will have the administrative fee waived when refunds are processed.”
It added that it was making the announcement “amid extraordinary global demand for tickets” with 20 million requests already submitted.
The draw for tickets of all prices in the first round of sales will take place on Tuesday, January 13.
