Spartak Moscow face Liverpool at the Otkrytiye Arena on Tuesday in a match that could give either side a significant boost in the race for qualification from UEFA Champions League group E. The two teams have last met in 2002, also in the Champions League group stage, and back then Liverpool won 5-0 at home and 3-1 in Moscow. The only previous clash was in the second round of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1992 and Spartak prevailed with a comfortable 6-2 score on aggregate.
Spartak Moscow started their UEFA Champions League adventure with a somewhat disappointing 1-1 draw at Maribor, it was disappointing especially because they had the lead until the 85th minute of the game. Their Russian Premier League campaign isn't going great either, they are currently ninth in the league table after having won just three matches out of eleven. They are struggling with injury problems, Jano Ananidze picked up a knock last weekend and will miss out along with Artem Timofeev, Roman Zobnin, Denis Glushakov, Georgi Tigiev and Ze Luis.
Liverpool also started their group stage campaign with a draw, 2-2 at home against Sevilla after having led 2-1 with a missed penalty kick at half-time. They got back to winning ways last weekend in the Premier League, they won 3-2 at Leicester to stop a poor run of four matches without victory in all competitions. Joe Gomez is suspended for this match after being sent off against Sevilla, while Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne are long-term absentees due to serious injuries.
Probable line-ups:
Spartak: Rebrov - Eschenko, Tasci, Bocchetti, Kombarov - Popov, Pasalic, Fernando - Samedov, Adriano, Promes
Liverpool: Karius - Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Lovren, Moreno - Henderson, Can - Mane, Coutinho, Salah - Firmino
My prediction: Liverpool to win 3-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Spartak win - 5.25
Draw - 4.20
Liverpool win - 1.67
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