Liverpool FC vs Leicester City is finally on a Premier League match card after 18 months thanks to the Foxes getting relegated from the English top flight and spending time in the second rung of the English football pyramid.
The 2022/23 season was a disaster for Leicester City, who were unable to do anything for themselves and their fans after a decade of constantly threatening the top six teams in England following their miraculous title win at the end of the 2015/16 season. That relegation reset them and led to them winning their eighth second-division EFL Championship title to regain promotion.
They are back but not exactly at their best, which worries their fans. They have already let go of one manager—Steve Cooper, who was responsible for bringing Nottingham Forest back to the Premier League and helping them stay there—and are now trying to build with the new manager, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, of Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven fame.
The 48-year-old Dutchman left his role at Manchester United after a disappointing start to the season as Erik ten Hag’s assistant, following his risky move to join the coaching staff of the club of his dreams despite performing brilliantly as the manager of Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven.
He took charge of the Red Devils for four games while they finalised their appointment of Ruben Amorim from Sporting CP Lisbon in Portugal. However, Cooper was sacked from Leicester after 157 days in charge, leading to an opening in England where he could be closer to United.
Van Nistelrooy is surely hoping to succeed with a talented Leicester City side because of his well-publicized dream of coaching Manchester United. Every match will be his audition attempt for the United job as he seeks to build on the work he did as the club’s interim boss. Liverpool away is his biggest opportunity to show that he is a great option in case INEOS decides to part ways with Amorim in the future.
The last time both teams met, Leicester City were almost out of the top flight. That fateful meeting in May 2023 ended in a home defeat for the Foxes, which all but confirmed their return to the second division. However, the Reds were under Jürgen Klopp’s tutelage at the time. Arne Slot is a very different manager, but he inherited the Klopp squad and has not made any significant changes to it. This means that the Foxes will face the same men who defeated them at King Power, 18 months on.
Leicester matched Liverpool for half an hour until midfielder Curtis Jones popped up with the first of his two goals that afternoon. Mohamed Salah got three assists that afternoon, squaring the ball to Jones in the same position for both his goals, which came in the space of three minutes.
Later in the second half, he fed Trent Alexander-Arnold the ball and the right-back rifled in Liverpool’s third to ensure that they returned to Merseyside with all three points from that fixture.
Belgian defender Wout Faes will have nightmares about this clash, having scored two own goals in favour of Liverpool in the reverse fixture that season and being caught out of place which allowed Jones to sneak in behind to score his first-ever professional brace.
All four men mentioned above will take to the pitch again for both Liverpool and Leicester City on Boxing Day 2024. The two Dutch managers—who know each other well from their Eredivisie battles at Feyenoord and PSV—will be working on tactics to ensure that none gets the better of the other.
While they prepare for their first clash outside the Netherlands, fans are looking for matchday tickets. Below is the information you need to get a seat at the stadium where this battle will take place.
Also, we have gathered team information and predicted what the starting XIs for both teams will look like as well as our prediction on the final scoreline of the game.
Match tickets
Liverpool will host the first leg of this 2024/25 Premier League fixture, just like they did in the 2022/23 season when Leicester City got relegated.
This means that the loudest stadium in England’s top flight, Anfield, will bear witness to the clash of two of the best to ever do it in the modern-day iterations of the Eredivisie as they face off for the first time outside the Dutch league. Liverpool FC vs Leicester City tickets are now on sale on both clubs’ websites, official channels and partner platforms.
As it is with matchday tickets in the Premier League, the applicants will be entered into ballots for the ticket which means that any fan who wants a seat at the game will stand a higher chance of getting a ticket if they register early.
Fans coming from outside Liverpool to watch either team can buy the Liverpool FC tickets or their Leicester City tickets from ticket resale platforms where other fans go to sell their tickets.
This applies to away fans (Leicester City fans) who were late to register for the ticket ballots on the Foxes’ official platforms.
Team news
Liverpool FC have all their injured players bar Alisson Becker back and training with the squad. Diogo Jota, however, remains a doubt because of his “fragility” (for the lack of a better descriptive term).
Alexander-Arnold is likely to start because Slot will want to help him build match fitness following several relapses since he got injured. Harvey Elliott should make the match squad again, but his involvement is uncertain.
The visitors, meanwhile, have been without Patson Daka, which means that Jamie Vardy and Jordan Ayew have to carry their attack once again. They will be worried about finding replacements for Bobby DeCordova-Reid and Jannik Vestergaard, both of whom got injured in October.
Line-ups
Here is how we expect the teams to line up for this Boxing Day curtain raiser.
Liverpool FC: Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Konate, Robertson; Endo, Mac Allister; Salah, Elliott, Diaz; Núñez.
Leicester City: Hermansen; Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen; Mc Ateer, Soumare, Winks, El Khannouss; Ndidi; Vardy.
Prediction
Arne Slot’s record versus Ruud Van Nistelrooy is lacking. He has lost and drawn one each against his compatriot while they both served in the Eredivisie. Slot has a much better team this time around, however, which finally gives him a chance at getting his own win on the board in their clash.
The implication of that statement is that Liverpool will win this game. However, if Van Nistelrooy can drill his style into Leicester City before their trip to Liverpool, he may just continue to have the upper hand against Slot. Still, we are predicting a Liverpool win on Boxing Day 2024.
Liverpool FC 2 – 1 Leicester City.
