A mid-season World Cup is a nightmare for club managers fretting over injuries but Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp said his players will be in constant touch throughout the tournament, updating him with any fitness issues. Seven Liverpool players have been called up by various national teams while the rest of the squad will have a training camp in Dubai during the World Cup.

Liverpool’s campaign resumes on December 20 with a League Cup last-16 game at Man City and though Klopp said he had “no idea” about the team he would pick for the clash, messages exchanged with his players would certainly help. “We have seven at the World Cup. We have a clear rule, the boys have to text me straight away if there are any issues after a game,” he said.

Silva scores in EB win

Calcutta: Cleiton Silva left his former fanbase in silence, scoring the only goal of the game as East Bengal handed Bengaluru FC their third successive 1-0 defeat of the season in ISL IX at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore.

This was East Bengal’s first clean sheet in this ISL.

The goal came in the 69th minute. Running towards his own goal on the left as the last man, Suresh Singh came under pressure from East Bengal’s Mahesh Singh and miskicked his backpass towards the goalkeeper. Mahesh pounded on the loose ball and was one-on-one with the keeper when he squared it for Silva, who calmly tapped the ball in against his former club.

A minute away from fulltime, Sunil Chhetri flicked the ball towards Roy Krishna who managed to get past the keeper but could not avoid Ivan Gonzalez’s brilliant last-ditch tackle that took the ball away from him.

OUR BUREAU