Hellish journey is no excuse – Lucas

Liverpool’s journey from hell cannot be used as an excuse for failure in Europe, claims Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva. The Reds have had to take the bus to Madrid to play Atletico in a Europa League semi-final first-leg on Thursday due to the ban on air travel because of the Icelandic Volcano ash cloud. The long trip will see the Merseysiders arrive in the Spanish capital less than 24 hours before kickoff. “When I was younger, I lived in Porto Alegre to play for Gremio and my home town was 1300kms away. I used to go back by coach quite a lot on holiday,” said Leiva. “That was 24 hours, sometimes more. You just have to relax, so we will have plenty of movies, Play Station, books, whatever. It won’t be easy, but we have to be ready and accept that and not think too much about it.”