28 December 2021
Date
15:00 ET Canada-USA | 22:00 Cairo Local Time
Michael Oliver (England)
Referee
King Power Stadium
Venue
Leicester City and Liverpool are set to meet for the second time in less than a week when they face each other at the King Power Stadium in the Premier League.
Last Wednesday, a heavily rotated Liverpool team came back from 0-2 and 1-3 to win on penalties and knock Leicester out in the quarterfinals of the Carabao Cup.
With the current COVID-19 situation in English football in mind, it should be said that no match is certain to take place until a couple of hours before kickoff.
Leicester City
The Foxes enter this clash on the back of not only the cup loss to this particular opponent but also a difficult defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, which saw them do their best but fail to come back from 4-0 down at halftime.
Kevin De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling all struck within the first 45 minutes. Between minutes 55 and 65, Leicester came very close as James Maddison, Ademola Lookman and Kelechi Iheanacho brought it back to 4-3, but Aymeric Laporte and Sterling again made sure the match ended 6-3.
Before those two games, Brendan Rodgers’ team drew 2-2 away to Southampton, lost 2-1 away to Aston Villa, lost 3-2 in the last match of the Europa League group stages away to Napoli, and thrashed Newcastle 4-0 at home.
At the moment, Leicester are in 10th place with 22 points, six off a spot that warrants a place in the Europa League again, with Manchester United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton and Hove Albion set between them and West Ham in sixth.
Liverpool
It’s back to business for Liverpool, who saw their Sunday match against Leeds United on Sunday canceled due to a request made by Leeds. They are now six points behind leaders Manchester City in the Premier League table, albeit with a game in hand on the defending champions. Like Liverpool in second, Chelsea in third place also have 41 to their name.
Liverpool’s last six matches saw them beat Wolves away by 0-1, AC Milan in the Champions League away by 1-2, Aston Villa at home by 1-0, Newcastle United at home by 3-1, draw 2-2 away to Tottenham Hotspur, and eventually knock Leicester out of the Carabao Cup on penalties after the match finished 3-3.
Manager Jurgen Klopp recently spoke about the madness of scheduling Premier League matches this close to one another, but it seems on this occasion it has served his team well – they got some rest over the weekend, while Leicester played Manchester City on Sunday.
