Europa League: 13 stats to know ahead of Sparta Prague v Liverpool

The Reds travel to face the Czechia champions away from home on Thursday night in a 5.45pm GMT kick-off.

Read on for a range of facts and figures to know ahead of the opening encounter in the knockout clash...

Liverpool qualified as group winners from Group E along with Toulouse. The Reds won four and lost two of their six games and guaranteed top spot with a match to spare.

This is the fourth occasion that the Reds have qualified as group winners in the Europa League, along with 2010-11, 2012-13 and 2015-16.

Liverpool are aiming to reach the quarter-finals of a European competition for the 28th time in their history.

Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott were the only players to start all six group games, with Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez also appearing in all six.

The Reds have used 27 different players in the competition so far this season. Only Elliott has played every minute of the Europa League campaign so far.

Mohamed Salah has scored 45 goals in 72 European appearances for Liverpool and has scored three goals in 182 minutes of Europa League action this season.

The Reds have met Czech opposition on two prior occasions, defeating Slovan Liberec in 2000-01 en route to UEFA Cup success, while they previously met Sparta Prague in 2010-11.

Liverpool are just two goals short of recording 1,000 during Jürgen Klopp’s tenure as manager.

Klopp has taken charge of Liverpool in Europe more times than any other boss in club history. This match will be his 88th fixture.

The Reds could keep a fourth consecutive clean sheet for the first time since April 2022.

In their five home games so far this season in the Europa League, Sparta Prague have won four and drawn the other, a 0-0 stalemate with Rangers. In those matches they have scored 12 times and conceded four.

Sparta head coach Brian Priske has faced Liverpool previously as a manager. He was the FC Midtjylland boss in the group phase of the Champions League in 2020-21.

Priske also faced the Reds three times as a player himself, for Portsmouth in 2005-06. He lost all three, including an FA Cup tie.