Boniface Fear Grips Anfield Ahead UCL Clash Tonight

Femi Solaja

Despite their perfect score recorded so far in the ongoing UEFA Champions League Group Phase, Liverpool faithful are gripped with fear as Bundesliga Champions, Bayer Leverkusen storms Anfield home of the former European Champions tonight.

Liverpool have posted three wins out of three in the new version of the group stage of the tournament and are joint first on nine points with Aston Villa and aiming to be among the top eight teams that will qualify for the knockout stage after the eight-round Swiss pairing.

But Liverpool fans are wary of what Super Eagles forward, Victor Boniface, can do especially his exploit on away soil.

The Nigerian has been inactive since late last month following a car accident after a league match in Germany but returned to action last Friday where he tasted 86 minutes of topflight football in the goalless outing against VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.

Leverkusen will be looking to continue their strong start in the new version where they are presently in 6th position on seven points. 

According to reports on Liverpool FC website site yesterday, the Reds fans know what the creative Nigerian forward can do with  other strikers like Nathan Tella (another Nigerian), Jeremie Frimpong and Patrick Schick giving him support. There are other options for coach Xabi Alonso but Boniface remains key in this away tie at Anfield this night.

While Leverkusen‘s recent domestic form has been relatively underwhelming as they have recorded two consecutive draws away to Werder Bremen and at home to VfB Stuttgart, their European results are solid.

They are unbeaten after three games and are hoping to improve on their most recent outing, a 1-1 draw away at Brest. For this clash, Alonso will be glad to be able to select a team from a near complete pool of available players, with Victor Boniface expected to lead the line once again after missing the Brest encounter. Amine Adli will miss out, Jeanuël Belocian and Nordi Mukiele are all set to miss out. Martin Terrier should return after sitting out the Stuttgart game. Alongside Boniface, the likes of Florian Wirtz and Jonas Hofmann will be hoping to cause the Reds’ backline plenty of problems.

Liverpool are however one of the in-form teams in Europe at the moment. Arne Slot’s side are one of only two teams in Europe’s premier club competition to have won every one of their games in the tournament so far (alongside Aston Villa), most recently a 1-0 victory over RB Leipzig. On the domestic front, Liverpool are as fine as fettle as they sit at the top of the Premier League with just one defeat this season across all competitions. They may be without Diogo Jota, Federico Chiesa, Harvey Elliott and ex-Leipzig centre-back Ibrahima Konaté for this fixture but are still stacked with talent all across the pitch with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cody Gakpo all at Slot’s disposal. Bundesliga alumni Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endō and Ryan Gravenberch could all also feature.

UCL (Today)

PSV v Girona

Bratislava v Di’Zagreb

Bologna v Monaco

Dortmund v S’ Graz

Celtic v RB Leipzig

Lille v Juventus

Liverpool v Leverkusen

R’Madrid v AC Milan

Sporting v Man City