Fingers crossed!

Get Liverpool Tickets at Fantastic Prices Now!

Join Our Facebook Fan Page for the Latest News/Rumours/Forums/Videos/WAGS/Funny Stuff/Features!

Sports - September 25, 2007

Ryan Babel has joined Fernando Torres and Albert Riera on Liverpool’s injury list ahead of their crucial Champions League match in Hungary on Tuesday.
The Dutchman twisted his ankle against Manchester City while Torres still has a groin injury and will not be risked.
The Reds must win to qualify for the next stage but their hopes will be meaningless if Fiorentina beat Lyon.
Debrecen will be without influential left-back Leandro, who is sidelined with a partially torn knee ligament.
With Lyon already qualified and Fiorentina looking to make it past the group stages for the first time in a decade, Liverpool face a tall order to continue their progress in a tournament they won in 2005.
But captain Steven Gerrard, who will almost certainly need another pain-killing injection in his groin to allow him to play, is confident his side’s season can be saved.
“The mood in the camp is really good, although we know our position in the table isn’t good enough,” said the midfielder. “But we have faith in our ability. We know we can put things right.”
The absence of Torres is a big blow but Rafael Benitez said it would be unwise to play him while he is still recovering from injury.
“There’s no point in him going,” said the Liverpool boss. “The next few days will decide if he is fit for Everton (on Sunday), but at this moment there are no guarantees.”

Benitez admitted it was frustrating for Liverpool to have lost control of their destiny.
“A lot depends on Fiorentina and Lyon but the main thing for us is to concentrate on our game and see what happens,” he said.
“We have to prepare our game because we don’t have any influence over the other one. If we can do our job and win, we’ll see.”
Debrecen boss Andras Herczeg has challenged his side to “make history” by denying Liverpool the win they need.
Herczeg, whose team have lost all four of their Group E matches, said: “If we even draw against Liverpool, it will be the greatest result in our club’s history.
“This game is easy for Liverpool. They have to win – nothing else will do. We intend to make their task as difficult as possible.”
The Hungarians, who are making their Champions League debut this season, lost 1-0 at Liverpool at Anfield in September.
Debrecen (probable team): Poleksic, Bodnar, Meszaros, Komlosi, Fodor, Czvitkovics, Kiss, Varga, Szakaly, Rudolf, Coulibaly.
Liverpool (from): Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Aurelio, Insua, Dossena, Aquilani, Gerrard, Benayoun, Mascherano, Lucas, Spearing, Kuyt, Ngog, Cavalieri. (BBC Sport)

Whilst we may need a miracle to qualify for the knock out stages of the Champions League it is by no means an impossible task, we have to go to Hungary and win and the best way we can do that is to attack from the off, Fiorentina and Lyon both managed to score four goals within the first hour on their away trips to Debrecen so it will be very disappointing if we fail to at least do our part of the job tonight.

Then we need Lyon to battle with all their might in Florence when to be honest they will more than likely not need to do so but fingers crossed they go into the game with the right attitude and that perhaps they can do us a favour, after all we did them a favour in both matches against us by allowing them to score late goals both at Anfield and in the Stade Gerland.

We have a few big names out, we are used to that at the moment, but we should easily have enough about us to sweep past Debrecen but then we found it very hard to defeat them at home so we shouldn’t count our chickens to early on part one of the Great Escape. It will be interesting to see if Rafa plays Alberto because It has been mighty strange how he hasn’t gotten much of a look in given the amount of time we waited for him to recover from injury.

My Prediction: 3-0 to Liverpool

YNWA


Don’t forget to check out Online Football Manager!