The draw for the last 32 of the Europa League was made on Monday. We landed ourselves with a reasonably straight-forwarding looking tie against Bundesliga side Augsburg, but according to a respected German analyst, they will not be a pushover.
Archie Rhind-Tutt, who often appears on BT Sport, told the Echo that the German outfit are a side that “relishes playing against the big teams”.
“In the last three years they have beaten Bayern Munich twice, admittedly when Bayern had already won the title, but that’s still no small achievement”, he said. “Back in February they enjoyed a 1-0 win at Dortmund which sent Borussia to the bottom of the Bundesliga in Jurgen Klopp’s final year there, so he will know all about them.”
Augsburg only snook into the draw on the final match day, with a 3-1 win away at Partizan Belgrade securing their place.
Interestingly, they boast the only goalkeeper to have scored a goal in the Bundesliga last season – Swiss international Marwin Hitz.
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Regardless of the talent on the side, with the talent we have and the money we’ve spent we should still expect to progress to the last 16.
There should be no doubt that Klopp is taking the competition seriously. We’d like to think we have as good a squad as anyone else still in the competition, and with a Champions League place on offer to the winners, there’s nothing to suggest we can’t go all the way.
Can we win it or should we focus on the league and a top four finish? Let us know!