Liverpool v Benfica – Match Preview

Another second leg, another deficit to turn around. On the plus side, unlike the Lille game the other week this time we have an away goal under our belts, which gives us a little bit of a safety net that we didn’t have last time. Unfortunately Benfica look a much more accomplished side than Lille, and we’ve got our work cut out if we’re to progress through this tie. Given how long we had to play with ten men in the 1st leg and how many chances Benfica squandered, a 2-1 scoreline wasn’t the end of the world, but Benfica showed enough to suggest they are more than capable of getting an away goal themselves.

We’ve got a problem in the full back positions tonight. Insua is our only recognised left back and he’s suspended. Given how he’s been targetted by opposing sides of late (including Benfica), that in itself mightn’t be a bad thing, but we do have a dilemma as to who replace him. Personally I’d put Agger there, he looks to be the most natural replacement and would allow us to keep a balance to the side. He’s comfortable going forward and is naturally left footed. Other options would be Carragher, Johnson and Mascherano, or even Degen I suppose.

I don’t like any of those, as it either means weakening other positions, or if we go with Degen including a player who has hardly played and who is very suspect defensively. I’d rather use Chris Mavinga than Degen, although I don’t even know if he’s eligible. He’s been training with the first team for a few weeks, but that would obviously be a huge gamble too. I have no idea what Rafa will do, but I really hope he uses Agger.

Three at the back would be another option, but who plays left wing back? Degen maybe? Benfica are good out wide, and they could just move Di Maria over to that side and what would we do to stop that? I’d be really worried if we went with that system against a side of Benfica’s ability, but I wouldn’t be thrilled if anyone other than Agger was left back. It’s not an easy decision for Benitez that’s for sure.

And who will replace Babel? Maxi is unavailable, and Riera is in the doghouse, so it would appear that Benayoun is the obvious choice. And what will we do in centre midfield? Two holding players, or Gerrard in there and Aquilani playing behind Torres? We’re losing, so the logical choice would be to go with the attacking selection. But we’re only losing by one goal, and a 1-0 win would be enough. Taking that into account, I don’t see Rafa changing his usual approach unless things get a bit desperate late on.

We’ve come through tougher situations than this, and done so on numerous occasions. It’s Anfield, it’s a European night and it’s a 2nd leg. Magical things usually happen, but we can’t just take it for granted that we’ll go through as we haven’t always come through these games. In fact, Benfica have been in this same situation not too long ago, and they dumped us out. Most of us will have turned up at Anfield that night in 2006 full expecting us to swat Benfica aside in the electric atmosphere, but it didn’t happen. We were reigning European champions then, but we went out.

I seem to remember Morientes and Crouch missing a whole host of chances that night, but we have Torres now and if he gets anything like that amount of chances we’ll go through. What worries me is that this Benfica side is better than the one the knocked us out in 2006, and they look like they have at least one away goal in them to me. We’ll have to play very well to go through, better than we have played in any European game this season that’s for sure.

Line up prediction: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Agger; Lucas, Mascherano; Kuyt,Gerrard, Benayoun; Torres:

Score prediciton: 3-2 (Torres 2, Gerrard)

CLICK TITLE FOR FULL STORY The Liverpool Way