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Liverpool clearly have an eye on Sunday's crunch clash with Manchester United, because manager Brendan Rodgers has left his big hitters at home for this Europa League group stage opener. Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Pepe Reina have all been omitted from a youthful squad that includes summer recruits Samid Yesil, Nuri Sahin and Oussama Assaidi. Liverpool's performances in this competition have been far from stellar. A fortunate 1-0 victory at Belarussian side Gomel was followed by a more comfortable 3-0 win at Anfield. In the playoff round the Reds were once again lucky to win 1-0 at Hearts, before needing a late Suarez leveller to salvage a 1-1 draw in the second leg. In the season as a whole Liverpool are creating chances but failing to convert them, and they have scored a paltry...

It's difficult to escape the feeling that Hearts have already missed their opportunity in this tie. The SPL outfit had some good spells against a weakened Liverpool side at Tynecastle last week, but couldn't find a way past keeper Pepe Reina. A late own-goal from Andy Webster gave Liverpool a 1-0 win, and the Reds are firm favourites to progress to the group stage. Hearts followed that defeat up with a disappointing goalless draw at Aberdeen at the weekend, a game that saw the Jambos muster just one shot on target in the whole 90 minutes. Hearts keeper Jamie MacDonald says his teammates have belief that they can pull off a shock at Anfield, but the market disagrees. Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Premier League champions Manchester City on Sunday indicates they are heading in the right...

[b]Michael Lintorn expects Liverpool to prove too strong for their Belarusian hosts but not humiliate them...[/b] [i]Gomel v Liverpool, Thursday 19:00, Premier Sports, Match odds: Gomel 10.5, Liverpool 1.41, The Draw 4.7[/i] The first opportunity to check out Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool in a competitive environment arrives on Thursday evening as they visit Gomel, the third-placed team in the Belarusian Premier League, in a Europa League qualifier. It seems reasonable to assume that the side put out by Kenny Dalglish's successor won't offer an entirely accurate impression of what to expect in 2012/13 though, as only one signing has been completed so far and three of his four senior strikers won't be involved. While Fabio Borini, who has more cause than the rest of the travelling...

When I went on holiday to Bilbao, it was hard to miss the influence of Athletic Club around the city. Almost every tapas bar and watering hole has at least one Athletic-related picture, be it a signed photo of the proprietor hugging a player rather too enthusiastically, or a depiction of players past or present in the heat of battle. The most prevalent image is in many ways the most striking - a barge containing the double-winning team of 1984, with joyous fans covering the banks of the River Nervion to praise their heroes. Athletic haven't won a trophy since, but have a chance to reach the Europa League final. Their 2-1 first-leg defeat owed much to a stirring Sporting fightback. Athletic appeared to be in control after Jon Aurtenetxe put them in front, but in the closing stages Sporting...

It might have been another disappointing domestic campaign for Sporting but all will be forgiven if they somehow end up in a major European final. To do so, they will have to see off Manchester United's conquerors Athletic Bilbao, the 2.9 favourites to win the competition. It's a tall order, no doubt, but Sporting have defied poor league form to upset the odds before. Ricardo Sa Pinto's men have already seen off Manchester City in this year's competition and if their performance at Eastlands is anything to go by, they aren't likely to be intimidated this time either. After finishing a dispiriting 36 points behind champions Porto last season, Sporting had hoped for a new dawn with the appointment of Domingos Paciencia - who led Braga to last year's Europa League final. But there...

[u][b]Atletico Madrid vs Hannover 96, 20:05, Live on ITV4[/b][/u] Both of these sides have every reason to be confident ahead of this tie, after they crushed their respective opponents in the previous round. Atletico disposed of Besiktas 6-1 on aggregate, with promising Argentine forward Eduardo Salvio scoring three times in the tie. Atletico have played seven home games in this season's Europa League, and they have won them all. The timely return from injury of Brazilian puppet-master Diego has given extra firepower to a team that's failed to score just once in Europe this term. Hannover drew 2-2 at Standard Liege in the first leg, before battering their Belgian opponents 4-0 at the AWD Arena, a ground where Mirko Slomka's men have lost just once all season. If Hannover are to have...

[u]Manchester United v Athletic Bilbao, Thursday 20:05, Five [/u] Manchester United fans must wonder why they were so sceptical about the Europa League. After last month's visit to Amsterdam, there is now a trip to Bilbao - albeit a costly one - to look forward to, as well as a chance to check out a team who have set tongues wagging across Europe this season. Athletic Bilbao are led by one of South America's most lauded coaches, Argentine tactical innovator and attractive football advocate Marcelo Bielsa, and after a troubling start, the results have been fairly spectacular. The Basque club topped a Europa League group featuring big-spending Paris St-Germain, will meet Barcelona in the Copa del Rey Final and sit fifth in La Liga, their momentum causing them to be rated 2.02 frontrunners...

[u]Sporting Lisbon v Manchester City, Thursday 18:00, ITV4. [/u] Having triumphed against Porto in the previous round, Manchester City now return to Portugal to take on Sporting Lisbon. In theory, this should be a much simpler task for Roberto Mancini's side. While Porto are top of the Portuguese League and now just 1.38 to retain their title after a crucial win at Benfica last Friday, Sporting are 14 points adrift after yet another underwhelming season. So underwhelming, in fact, that their current boss Ricardo Sa Pinto, a former captain of the club, has been in charge for less than a month after the departure of Domingos Pacienca, who reached the final of this competition last year with Braga. However, since Sa Pinto's arrival, relatively little has changed in terms of team ...

[u]Manchester United v Ajax, Thursday 20:05, Five [/u] The Manchester United starting line up might not be quite as strong, given that this second leg comes three days shy of a Premier League trip to Norwich, rather than on the brink of a free weekend as with the first, but the outcome should be the same. The 2-0 victory achieved at the Amsterdam ArenA last week, and the fact that the likes of David de Gea, Rio Ferdinand, Nani and Wayne Rooney started there, supported Sir Alex Ferguson's claim that "it is a tournament we will try and win". There is a school of thought is that Manchester United are worth laying in this return fixture due to the perceived danger in trusting a team who don't actually need to win, however the stats suggest that they will justify odds of 1.38. Complacency...