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LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool will use two different teams in the Club World Cup and League Cup quarterfinals in order to play the games on consecutive days and avoid a scheduling pile-up.
Liverpool announced Tuesday that its League Cup quarterfinal against Aston Villa will go ahead on its original date of Dec. 17 — only one day before the Champions League winners' first match at the Club World Cup in Qatar.
The decision was made in order to avoid having to play the League Cup game at a later date during the busy Premier League schedule around Christmas and New Year's.
Liverpool said in a statement that "while this is not an ideal scenario, it is an outcome which was arrived at with the best interests of the competition, our fellow clubs and ourselves as the sole motivating factor."
Liverpool has used a second-string squad in their previous League Cup matches and the EFL said in a statement that the club has committed to "fielding a team that is largely consistent with those that have participated in earlier rounds of this season's competition."
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