This is by no means a gimme!

Chelsea v Liverpool

Liverpool welcome back Javier Mascherano after he missed the win over Burnley with a pelvic injury suffered on international duty.

Manager Rafael Benitez does not have any other injury problems apart from long term absentees Daniel Agger and Alberto Aquilani.

Debrecen are the first Hungarian club to reach the group stage of the competition since Ferencvaros in 1995.

Their previous visit to England was a 3-0 loss at Manchester United in 2005.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, who marks his 300th game in charge of the team, insisted they would not be taking their opponents likely.

“We were working hard, sending scouts and watching some Debrecen games and we have a lot of information now and we will see what the real level is on the pitch,” he said.
“People may say we are favourites (against Debrecen), so we have to live up to that. We must start well in this competition.

“The Champions League is very important for us, we will want to go to the final, and the usual top teams will be in the final stages.

“It is always important to approach every competition to win it. But in a top side like Liverpool, the priority for the fans has to be the Premier League.
“Then Champions League, FA Cup and Carling Cup. If you wanted an order, that is probably it. But I am greedy, I want to win the Premier League and the Champions League.”

Liverpool (from): Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Dossena, Insua, Kyrgiakos, Derby, Gerrard, Riera, Benayoun, Mascherano, Lucas, Spearing, Torres, Voronin, Kuyt, Babel, Ngog, Kelly, Cavalieri. (BBC Sport)

After our morale boosting rout of Burnley no doubt all players and fans will be expecting a similar scoreline against the little known Hungarian champions but complacency should be avoided by all concerned. It will be interesting to see who Rafa selects in his eleven.

Lucas filled in well in a deeper role on the weekend but now Javier Mascherano is back so Benitez will have to decide how best to line up for this one. Yossi must surely be set to start but that could be at the expense of Albert Riera depending on what kind of formation our boss opts for.

My Preditcion: Liverpool 2-0 Debrecen.


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