Balotelli, Mane troll Solskjaer’s side
Liverpool forward Sadio Mane appeared to enjoy watching Manchester United fall to their first defeat under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Tuesday night.
United were beaten 2-0 by PSG at Old Trafford in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie — with Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe on the scoresheet.
Mane watched the game on television from Liverpool’s team hotel in Marbella, where Jurgen Klopp’s men are on a warm weather training trip.
The Senegalese star shared a photo of the TV and captioned it: “Hummm”. Just a minute later he posted an image of himself and manager Klopp laughing.
Mane later deleted his first post, but it seems clear that he was taking a dig at United.
Liverpool’s next Premier League game is away to United on Feb 24.
Former Manchester City and Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli was less subtle in his trolling of United.
The Italian took to Twitter to post a video of PSG passing the ball around at Old Trafford. He captioned it: “MAN UTD OOOOOLE”.
Balotelli then tweeted again, writing: “City fans happy! Good night”, before deleting both posts.
Meanwhile, Klopp is set to find out whether he will face a touchline ban for accusing referee Kevin Friend of bias.
Klopp was livid with Friend’s display in Liverpool 1-1 draw with West Ham last week as he claimed that the referee was biased towards The Hammers in the second half to make up for Liverpool’s first-half goal, scored by Mane, being offside.
As reported by The Sun, Klopp said: “I heard our goal was offside, I’m pretty sure the ref knew that in the second half.
“In 50-50 situations or 60-40 it was always a free-kick for the other team, which was hard and did not make life easy.”
Following his comments, Klopp was contacted by the FA, with the Liverpool boss having until Friday to explain his actions.
Given that Klopp didn’t ask for an extension, the FA must decide by late yesterday whether to charge Klopp with misconduct for implying bias or attacking the integrity of the official.
Klopp is facing a defensive crisis ahead of next week’s Champions League clash at home to Bayern Munich.
Virgil van Dijk is suspended for the first leg of the last-16 tie, while Dejan Lovren faces a battle to be fit as he struggles with a thigh injury.
As reported by The Mirror, Klopp may have to deploy Joel Matip and Fabinho at centreback against Bayern.
Fabinho has been struggling with a muscular problem but should be fine to feature.
However, there is some positive news for Liverpool on the injury front, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back in training with the squad following his injury nightmare.
The England international hasn’t played since April 2018 because of a serious knee injury.
Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita, meanwhile, has admitted he would love his former RB Leipzig teammate Timo Werner to join him at Anfield.
The players spent two successful seasons together in the Bundesliga, and Werner has gone on to establish himself as the firstchoice striker for Germany’s national team.
Keita, who signed for the German club alongside Werner in June 2016, would welcome a reunion with one of his ‘best friends’ in the Premier League.
“We played very well together in Leipzig, and he was one of my best friends there,” Keita explained. “It’s clear: if he’ll be on the move, I’ll ask Timo to join us here at Liverpool.”
Keita played 71 games and scored 17 goals for the German club, while Werner has an impressive record of scoring 56 times in 101 appearances.