Here we go again then, another European night and another Liverpool vs Chelsea clash.

It’s our ninth meeting in Europe and the fifth consecutive season in the Champions League, little wonder the tie induced a few groans when it came out.

Having said that though, I know some of these games have made poking your eyes with needles seem a slightly less painful option but according to Guus Hiddink, we won’t be going there with the intention of giving in gracefully to the usual suffocation. The temporary Chelsea boss, obviously less familiar with the yearly tedium says “We come here not to sit back and wait and react.  It is not the way to play football in my philosophy, nor the team’s concept of how to play football.  Whenever we can we try to take the initiative.  If you can score an away goal that is always a big blow for the home team.  If they have conceded, it is always very difficult to recover that.”

On the squad front, Rafa has to do without the suspended Mascherano. However, despite the usual kidology about Gerrard being ‘a doubt’, Saint Stevie is predictably fit and raring to go tonight.

For Chelsea, Joe Cole and Paulo Ferreira remain out long-term and are joined by Jose Bosingwa. But whilst there doesn’t seem to be any news on Ricardo Carvalho yet the news on Didier Drogba, who missed our game against Newcastle at the weekend, seems a lot better, with the suggestion that he should be fit to play.

On the ‘dodgy’ list in terms of bookings, for Liverpool are Alvaro Arbeloa and Andrea Dossena, whilst for Chelsea it’s Anelka, Ashley Cole and John Terry walking the tightrope. A yellow card for any of these players will see them miss the return leg at Stamford Bridge.

KEY PLAYERS

LIVERPOOL

Steven Gerrard – joint top scorer in the Champions League with 7 goals, including two against Real Madrid. He’s played in every Champions League game against us and unfortunately for us seems to be inspiring a bit of fight in them at the minute.

CHELSEA

Michael Essien – The Chelsea midfielder loves these sort of nights, he was bloody made for games like this and he’ll be out to cause them as many problems as he can.

THE MANAGERS

Both Rafa and Guus Hiddink have lost 13 Champions League matches in their careers as coaches although both have won the Champions League or its equivalent once. During that time they’ve faced each other just once before, when Rafa’s La Liga side Extremadura were beaten 5-1 by Hiddink’s Real Madrid.

CLUB FORM

LIVERPOOL

Liverpool are undefeated in 8 games in the Champions League and a win would equal their club record of five on the trot in this competition. As we’d well remember, their last defeat was against in last year’s semi-final. They’ve scored at least one goal in every one of their last 18 Champions League games and last failed to score back in November 2007.

CHELSEA

Ominously, we haven’t managed a win from any of our last seven games away in Europe, in fact the last time we did was November 2007 against Rosenborg. If we fail again tonight, we’ll equal our record of 8 away games in Europe without winning which has stood since May 1966.

HEAD TO HEAD

Tonight marks our 23^rd meeting in five seasons in all competitions (that’s bloody ridiculous) with us winning 9, Liverpool winning 7 and 6 of them being drawn. It’s our third game so far this season – with them doing the double over us already in the league and three wins on the trot just doesn’t bear thinking about.

In the recent Champions League meetings, Liverpool won both the 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 semi-finals although we took them to extra time in the second leg last season and finally shut the fuckers up by knocking them out.

PREDICTION

It’s Liverpool v Chelsea – god knows!

Filed under: Europe, Match Day, Preview