World Cup:
Trent Alexander-Arnold made his World Cup debut on Thursday night as England lost to Belgium 1-0 in their final group game. The defeat meant England will be facing Colombia on Tuesday in the round of 16 where a potential win could mean they would face Switzerland or Sweden in the Quarter-Final.
Trent Alexander-Arnold:
“In a World Cup you’re going to come up against the best teams in the world. Every team who has got to the round of 16 has deserved to, so there are no easy games that we can see ahead of us.
“[Colombia] will be very tough. If you look back to the last World Cup, they did unbelievably well. They have shown in this World Cup that they can bounce back from a defeat and win games. They won their group so it’s not going to be easy at all. We’re fully focused.”
Meanwhile, Sadio Mane’s Senegal we’re heartbroken as they were knocked out of the World Cup due to the Fair Play rules. Senegal and Japan were on level points with four. However, Senegal had picked up more yellow cards than Japan which led to their departure from the tournament.
Roberto Firmino was an unused substitute in Brazil’s 2-0 victory against Serbia. The South American side topped their group and will be facing Mexico in the last 16.
Club News:
Liverpool have announced Naby Keita will be wearing the iconic Number Eight shirt as he officially joins on July 1st. Ahead of his transfer, club legend Xabi Alonso has some positive words regarding Keita.
Alonso: “He’s a big personality. He has the hunger, the will to compete, and after in football terms he’s an all-round midfielder.”
[He’s] Good with the ball, he runs and dribbles very quickly with the ball, but he also likes to make things tick in the midfield.”
Liverpool CEO Peter Moore spoke about the clubs plans on finding the next Mohamed Salah. The CEO spoke about the importance of income having admitted clubs cannot win trophies if they don’t spend at least £500m.
Moore: “We are the proud owners of the world’s most expensive defender in Virgil Van Dijk at £75m. But that money has got to come from somewhere. And being able to drive that growth becomes critical. Why? Because you invest in the team.
Our primary focus for every pound, Euro, dollar we make is to give it to Jurgen Klopp and our scouting staff and our sporting director and say go buy the best players, go find the next Mohamed Salah.
SGo shore up the defence, which we did with Virgil Van Dijk. Go figure out how you can identify a player like we’ve just done with Naby Keita, buy him a year in advance, leave him in Germany, but now, as he shows up this week, is a Liverpool player.”
