Reds will be hoping to make more happy memories in Istanbul.
A Thursday night trip to Turkey may not be the ideal preparation for Sunday’s Premier League game against the champions Manchester City. But for Liverpool fans, returning to the Ataturk Stadium is an irresistible prospect.
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It will be the first time that Brendan Rodgers’s side have been back to Besiktas’s temporary home since the 2005 Champions League final, where the Reds came from 3-0 down at half-time, to produce one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history, levelling the match by full-time, before subsequently winning on penalties against Italian giants AC Milan.
Liverpool will wary of being overawed by the situation, as they only carry a precarious 1-0 first-leg lead going into the second instalment of their Europa League last 32 clash against the Turkish side, and Rodgers could be without as many as eight first-team players for the match.
Unfortunately, captain Steven Gerrard – the one remaining player still with the club from that night nearly a decade ago – is one of those unavailable, as he continues his recovery from injury.