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Liverpool had a part to play in Go Ahead Eagles getting the better of Aston Villa in the Europa League today with the Dutch side coming from behind to win the game.
Evann Guessand opened the scoring for Unai Emery's men, with Harvey Elliott an unused substitute in the Netherlands. Goals from Mathis Suray and Mats Deijl either side of half-time put Go Ahead Eagles in front and Emi Buendia blasted a penalty kick over the bar late in the contest, squandering a chance to equalize.
Speaking ahead of the game, Go Ahead Eagles manager Melvin Boel revealed the role the Reds had played in pre-match preparations. "We exchanged footage with people from Liverpool," Boel told ESPN Netherlands.
Arne Slot's side has plenty of Dutch connections aside from the head coach himself. Sipke Hulshoff and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, his assistants, are also from the Netherlands.
John Heitinga, who was one of his right-hand men last season, has since joined Ajax, but he too is Dutch. And Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch were joined by fellow countryman Jeremie Frimpong this summer.
Liverpool will face Aston Villa a week on Saturday, with Slot's men preparing footage for themselves ahead of time. The Midlands outfit started the season slowly but had won each of its last five matches prior to today.
Like Liverpool, it has now won twice in Europe and lost once. Both English clubs will expect to progress to the knockout phase of the UEFA competition they are competing in.
"Europe is always very difficult," Emery said in his pre-match press conference. "I have my own experiences, but the most important ones are the experiences we have together here with Aston Villa.
"It’s very, very important. We played in the Conference League, we played in the Champions League, and we struggled even more in the Conference League playing away than we did in the Champions League.
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"To get a good result away, it’s necessary to play focused, to play disciplined, to play seriously, and then to play trying to impose our game plan and tactical structure against the opponent.
"We have respect for opposing teams in Europe because they are usually playing very motivated when they’re at home.
"They’re going to play here with their supporters and they will try to beat us, showing their capacity. We have to respect them and to play seriously, getting our collective level as high as possible.
"Individually, as well, we have to use our qualities to impose. We’re respecting them and analyzing them collectively and individually."
English (US) ·