“If they play”- Ancelotti doesn’t buy into Liverpool’s injury issues for UCL final

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t buy into injury issues faced by Liverpool for UEFA Champions League final

Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti take on Liverpool in the 2022 UEFA Champions League final in Paris tonight. Los Blancos released their official squad for the final, as covered by TheKopTimes, and had no notable absentees.

But for Liverpool, six names have dominated discussions in recent weeks leading up to the final. Fabinho, Virgil van Dijk, Divock Origi, Thiago Alcantara, Joe Gomez, and Mohamed Salah have all, at one point or the other this month, been a doubt for the showpiece occasion at Parc des Princes.

The Brazilian midfielder suffered a muscular problem in our win against Aston Villa more than two weeks ago. Thiago, meanwhile, came off against Wolves in our penultimate game of the season.

Gomez pulled up short in our 1-0 win over Southampton and came off before halftime, while Salah and van Dijk’s premature FA Cup final exits against Chelsea worried LFC fans.

Ancelotti doesn’t buy it

Ancelotti, however, doesn’t really think much of this situation when speaking in his pre-match press conference (h/t Liverpool Echo). According to him, the players would all be up for the big occasion and give it their all, even if they did not train well in recent days.

“If the Liverpool players play, they don’t have an injury. They might not have been at their best in training but that won’t affect their performance. It’s a final, they’ll give everything and it won’t affect the outcome.”

Maybe he does have a point, given our injury issues have mostly turned out to be false alarms. Fabinho and Thiago have trained and travelled with the squad to Paris. Salah and van Dijk were both named on the bench against Wolves, while the Reds, according to the Mirror, are confident about Gomez returning for the final.

One big loss is Divock Origi, who has been ruled out of the UCL final due to an injury he picked up in the last training session leading up to the PL game against Wolves.

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Ancelotti gave as diplomatic an answer as one would expect a manager with his experience to give. But no one can deny that if even one of Salah, Fabinho, Thiago, and van Dijk doesn’t start, it would be a big boost for Los Galacticos.