Breaking bad for replays
Reds keeper can’t contain excitement
FA CUP fourth round replays could wreck the Premier League’s new winter break.
The FA has scheduled the replays for early February when clubs were originally promised a weekend off.
Each Premier League team will be given a free weekend on either February 8-9 or 15-16.
But now it has emerged that the FA will schedule replays between those dates.
An FA spokesperson
Everton v C Palace Brighton v Watford
said: “The FA has worked hard to ensure the introduction of a winter break for Premier League clubs this season.
“Clubs will either be given a free weekend on February 8 and 9 or February 15 and 16.
“We will work with the Premier League and the clubs to ensure every team gets a winter break.”
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has already reacted angrily to the scheduling.
Klopp was fuming about the amount of football put on his squad, after they were forced to play a youth team in the Carabao Cup against Aston Villa on Tuesday.
That was because they had a Club World Cup semi-final on Wednesday in Qatar.
“The problem that we have is the Premier League have decided we have a winter break and the FA decided the fourth round, you replay in that week,” said Klopp.
“It’s incredible. It’s in the winter break. Right? That’s when they set the game.
“Okay, how is that possible? Nobody speaks about these things. I really don’t understand that.”
ALISSON knows just how much winning the Club World Cup means to the people of Brazil.
The Liverpool keeper was a teenage fan when boyhood team Internacional stunned Barcelona and lifted the trophy in 2006. The star-studded Spanish outfit included Ronaldinho, Deco and Andres Iniesta, but a late winner from Adriano Gabiru filled a 14-year-old Alisson with joy back home in Brazil.
It created a dream that will be fulfilled today when he lines up against another team from his homeland, Flamengo.
“I am excited to be here on this big stage playing the Club World Cup,” he said.
“It is a dream come true. When I was young my former club Internacional became Club World Cup champions in 2006 and I watched it as a supporter. “I was so excited. Then I started to dream of this. “Now I’m here with the chance to win it for the first time with Liverpool against a big club.
“I am enjoying this moment being here.” Liverpool could win this competition for the first time as they look to avenge the 1981 defeat by Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup. Back then, that was the only competition in which the European Cup winners could face the Copa Libertadores champions. FIFA founded the Club World Cup in 2000 and the competition has become a huge target for South American sides. But, despite Manchester United winning it in 2008, from CHRIS MCKENNA in Doha
the tournament has yet imagination in England.
The Champions League appears to remain the pinnacle for English clubs but the players have a different take according to Alisson.
“It is big for Brazilians but I think it is bigger for who is playing in the game,” he said.
“If you are on the outside of competition you don’t give it value.
“It is elite, it is just for the winners. Flamengo won the Libertadores.
“We won the
League, Monterrey CONCACAF.
“We have many other clubs who won big competitions. And we are here. This is important.”
It is also a rare chance to complete something Liverpool have never done before.
They are aiming to win the Premier League for the first time this season but they have won 18 league titles before.
They have six European Cups, three UEFA Cups, seven FA Cups, eight League Cups.
The only other top club competition they haven’t won is the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup.
“It is important to make history and put our names in the club as the first time ever that Liverpool won it,” added Alisson.
“We will try our can feel how much want this.
“But this is not just big for them.
We want to win it.” to capture
Champions won the best. You Flamengo this the (right) would be history. That’s not my first concern. Winning it would be great.
“We feel the tension in the situation but we feel it as a massive opportunity and we want to try it.”
Liverpool were questioned for sacrificing the League Cup while winning this competition is huge for those in South America.
But Klopp insists his team desperately want to win the only major trophy the club has never won.
He said: “Flamengo got sent here with a clear order to win it and to come back as heroes, we got told ‘Stay at home and play the Carabao Cup’. That is a massive difference.”
Virgil van Dijk trained yesterday and is expected to play after recovering from illness.