Liverpool and Manchester United's first ever meeting in Europe is being billed by Uefa as a clash that will take their rivalry to a "whole new level".
But the circumstances of their game tonight tells a rather different story, says Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph, who suggests the level will be "a few rungs down from the European Cup wins that established United and Liverpool as global powerhouses".
For the first time in 35 years, "the fortunes of the clubs mirror each other," he notes, and not in a happy way. Usually one is on top and the other desperate to get one over their bitter rivals, but this meeting sees both sides in need of a revival.
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A Thursday night collision in the Europa League between the teams placed sixth and seventh in the Premier League is not the way a romantic would have scripted the first ever European encounter between the two rivals.
But it makes for a "meatier" collision, Bascombe argues. "There will come a moment next week when Liverpool's or Manchester United's players and supporters celebrate their sweetest success this season. No one will be doubting the credibility of the competition then."
Until then, the fans will be unified in "remembering better times and driven more by the fear of failure, perhaps, than real affection for the competition", says Daniel Taylor in The Guardian.
But differences between the two sides remain. While United boss Louis van Gaal has implied that the game is no more significant than the weekend's clash with West Bromwich Albion and decried Liverpool as just another opponent, his counterpart, Jurgen Klopp, has described it as "the mother of all football games".
"Those emotive words summed up why, perhaps, Klopp is adored by the red half of Merseyside, while many United supporters feel indifferent towards their manager Van Gaal," says Paul Hirst in The Times. "Klopp will kick every ball tonight while Van Gaal will detach himself emotionally from the match as much as he can."
It will be a clash between chaos and control, says The Telegraph's JJ Bull.
"Both managers know how to beat each other but while Van Gaal has the advantage at the moment, winning three of the five games both have overseen against each other, there is no clear winner between Klopp's attack, attack, attack and Van Gaal's control, control, control. United fans may well wish their manager took a little more of an adventurous route at times, but he knows how to win games like these.
