Liverpool officials have admitted their surprise and dismay at remembering that they'd invited German side Augsburg to Anfield.
Staff at Anfield were looking forward to a quiet night in with the DVD of One Night in Istanbul when they realised with dismay that they had agreed to host the second leg of a Europa League last 32 match.
After ruling out cancelling at such short notice, Liverpool employees hastily set about making the place look presentable, putting up goals, marking the pitch and storing the club’s more valuable players out of sight.
Penny drops
They didn’t send us an email or a text or anything confirming so we reckoned we were out of the woods
“There was this horrible moment where we remembered saying they [Augsburg] could come over on the 25th. It seemed like the polite thing to do, and to be honest we all sort of presumed it was one of those invitations they don’t take you up on,” a Reds insider told FFT.
“They didn’t send us an email or a text or anything confirming so we reckoned we were out of the woods until we started to see people in Augsburg shirts around town. To be honest we all cringed a little at the idea that Everton will see we’re hanging out with Augsburg.
“I’m just hoping we don’t have to do extra-time or anything like that. If it’s still 0-0 in the second half we’ll get the gaffer [Jurgen Klopp] to start yawning and mentioning his early start tomorrow.
“If they don’t take that hint we’ll just put Dejan Lovren on and that should take care of it.”
Eager guests
However, reports from the Augsburg camp suggest that the German club are eagerly awaiting an evening at Anfield.
“Augsburg have been looking forward to this game for ages, they can’t wait,” an insider told FFT.
“They’ve been proudly going around telling everyone that they’re hanging out with Liverpool and if they have their way it’ll be a late night.”
