DOHA, Qatar — Liverpool are in Doha preparing for their Club World Cup semifinal against Mexico’s Monterrey, but before that game Jurgen Klopp will spy on their potential final opponents while making sure he tunes in to watch the Anfield club’s second string in League Cup action.

The runaway Premier League leaders are in the bizarre position of having to play two matches in two days on two separate continents, almost 7,000 kilometers apart, with the League Cup quarterfinal away to Aston Villa being followed by the meeting with the CONCACAF Champions League winner in Qatar.

The club’s under-23 coach, Neil Critchley, will lead Liverpool’s youngsters against Villa while Klopp and all of his star players arrived in Doha looking to finish a fine year by winning the Club World Cup for the first time.

Brazilian giant Flamengo, the Copa Libertadores winner, meets Asian champion Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia in the first semifinal at the Khalifa International Stadium on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. local time with Liverpool’s League Cup tie kicking off at 1945 GMT.

“Tomorrow night, we start with watching the other semifinal live in the stadium, I think it should be possible. And then we will leave there a bit earlier and sit here in front of the television and watch that game,” Klopp told Liverpool’s official website.

“Aston Villa is the big favorite, that’s clear, but who cares? It’s football and the ball rolls in each direction, that’s pretty cool.”

Liverpool arrived without injured defender Dejan Lovren, but with Georginio Wijnaldum, who came off in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Watford.

Welsh right-back Neco Williams and midfielder Curtis Jones might ordinarily have been in the team against Villa but were instead called up by Klopp to go to Qatar.

Monterrey reached the semifinal after beating Al-Sadd, coached by Barcelona great Xavi Hernandez, on Saturday.