Manchester United need to play an outstanding 90 minutes to stand any chance of beating Liverpool and keeping their Europa League hopes alive.
After a rather forgettable performance at Anfield, Manchester United are staring at a 2-0 deficit going into the second leg, with Liverpool the clear favourites to book their place in the quarterfinals of Europe's second-tier competition.
What Manchester United can look at is the strong record they have against Liverpool since Louis Van Gaal has taken over at the club as the manager. Before the 2-0 loss to Liverpool last Thursday, Van Gaal had not tasted defeat against Liverpool as Manchester United manager.
"We have beaten Liverpool four out of five times since I am here at Manchester United," midfielder Ander Herrera told the club's official website. "Of the two times we played against them at home we won clearly, I think, and we were the better team. I think we have very good examples of how we have to play.
"We feel much stronger when we play at home where we have more fans, who are the best in England, in my opinion. Away from home they are fantastic and at home they always support us when we play good or when we play bad, so they are going to be very important.
"We cannot go crazy, we have to score the first goal and not concede in the first 45 -- then another set of 45. It is really important that we do not concede because we will create chances, something that we weren't doing a number of weeks ago, but now we have a lot of crosses and a lot of players in the box.
"We want to make it a very difficult night for them. We are Man United and if they want to go to the next round, they will have to fight a lot."
Team news: Manchester United: Van Gaal believes Bastian Schweinsteiger is not ready for a start in this must-win game for the home team. Schweinsteiger made an impressive comeback from injury at the weekend, playing his part in Anthony Martial's equaliser against West Ham United in the FA Cup. However, Van Gaal thinks it is still too early to risk starting the Germany international.
Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson will also not feature against Liverpool from the start. "They are training now with us but you have to build up more than only one training session or two training sessions," Van Gaal told MUTV. "For example, Young and Valencia are out for a few months so it is not so easy to come back and that you can adapt to the rhythm of this level.
"Too early also for Schweinsteiger (to start). He has played two times 10 or 15 minutes, maybe he can play 45 minutes or 30 minutes dependable on the situation also on the pitch. I cannot say in advance but I try to do that of course.
"His impact was very big in the last game versus West Ham United and he was involved in the goal, I think. But, yeah, I have to cope with the fact when they're injured, they're not back at the moment they train one training session with you."
Phil Jones and Luke Shaw remain on the treatment table, while Wayne Rooney is on course to return to the first team after the international weekend at the end of this month.
Liverpool: Klopp does not have too many injury issues to deal with. Danny Ings and Joe Gomez are long-term absentees, while midfielder Lucas Leiva is also ruled out with a thigh complaint. Martin Skrtel is back from injury, but is unlikely to get in ahead of Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho, while Alberto Moreno is a slight doubt after seemingly picking up a thigh problem in training.
Expected lineups: Manchester United: De Gea; Varela, Smalling, Blind, Rojo; Herrera, Schneiderlin; Martial, Mata, Lingard; Rashford.
Liverpool: Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Henderson, Can; Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino; Sturridge.
Europa League last 16 second leg: Manchester United vs Liverpool schedule:
Date: Thursday, March 17.
Time: 8.05 pm GMT (1.35 am IST, 3.05 pm ET).
Venue: Old Trafford.
TV listings: India: Ten Action and Ten HD. UK: BT Sport Europe and BT Sport Ultra HD. USA: Fox Sports 2 and ESPN3. Canada: RDS and TSN. China and Hong Kong: PPTV and LeTV. Singapore and Malaysia: Eurosport Asia. Thailand, Indonesia, France, Spain, Australia, Middle East, North Africa: Bein Sports. South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa: SuperSport 3.
