Three Liverpool players are facing Champions League suspensions as the Reds attempt to advance to the semi-finals tonight. Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch were both booked during the round of 16 match against Galatasaray last month, joining Curtis Jones in having two yellow cards in the competition this season.
This means that if the trio gets cautioned when Liverpool plays Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes tonight, they will be barred from playing in a potential quarter-final second leg. Conor Bradley has two Champions League bookings, but has been sidelined for the rest of the season due to a knee injury acquired in early January.
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According to competition rules, any player who receives three yellow cards (or any consecutive odd number of bookings) from the league stage forward will be suspended for the next match. A respite occurs only at the end of the quarter-finals, when all yellow card totals are cleared.
Paris Saint-Germain also has two players on two yellow cards, with Nuno Mendes and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia just one booking away from missing the second leg at Anfield next Tuesday.
If Van Dijk is unable to play in the second leg, Joe Gomez will likely replace Ibrahima Konate at the back.
That would, however, restrict him out of playing right-back, as he did in the FA Cup against Manchester City to counter Jeremy Doku’s danger.
His deputy, Wataru Endo, is injured, and a change would compel one of Curtis Jones, if not suspended, Alexis Mac Allister, or Dominik Szoboszlai to take on a larger role in place of Gravenberch.
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