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REDS AT LION’S DEN

LONDON: Neither Trent Alexander-Arnold nor Andrew Robertson have Lionel Messi’s star power, but the flying Liverpool defenders could play just as vital a role as the Barcelona captain in their mouth-watering Champions League semifinal clash.

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London, April 30

Neither Trent Alexander-Arnold nor Andrew Robertson have Lionel Messi’s star power, but the flying Liverpool defenders could play just as vital a role as the Barcelona captain in their mouth-watering Champions League semifinal clash.

Virgil van Dijk has hogged the spotlight among Liverpool’s defenders with a superb campaign that earned him the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year award.

Ahead of Wednesday’s first leg against Barca, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold have emerged as essential contributors to Liverpool’s bid for Champions League glory.

With 24 assists between them in all competitions, England right-back Alexander-Arnold and Scotland left-back Robertson are pivotal figures in Jurgen Klopp’s game-plan.

Robertson’s 11 assists have equalled the Premier League record for a defender and Alexander-Arnold is not far behind, with nine, meaning Liverpool’s full-backs are as much wingers as defenders.

It has become the most demanding, tactically significant position in the Liverpool team as without Robertson, 25, doing the job of two players with his lung-bursting runs up and down the flanks, Senegal winger Sadio Mane would not have the freedom to move infield, from where he has scored 24 goals this term.

Mohamed Salah’s licence to roam from the wing is only possible because there is less need to track back defensively while Alexander-Arnold, 20, tirelessly covers every blade of grass on the right.

Now or never for Barca?

It was 10 years ago Alex Ferguson dubbed them the best team he had ever faced but those left from Barcelona’s iconic generation still have work to do. Three remain and when Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique line up against Liverpool, they may wonder if this could be their best chance of another, and perhaps final, Champions League triumph.

Messi, who turns 32 in June, Busquets, who will be 31 in July, and Pique, already 32, have hung on, driving the club through fresh cycles of success.

“Our objective now is the treble,” said president Josep Bartomeu.

And for the remnants of one of Barcelona’s most symbolic eras, time is running out to put it right. — AFP

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