Liverpool v Marseille Match Thread

[Joe King]

More rubbish spouted by Andy Bellend. He needs to keep his trap shut saying our season could end this week.

[desertscouser]

I'm happy with Rafa's team selection (apart from Kuyt but I'll accept it). This team has to be good enough to beat Marseille. The players need to show they're worth playing for the shirt...it's games like this where they'll be judged.

I haven't been this nervous for a game for quite sometime. I'm more nervous tonight then I was in Athens.

Come on you reds!!!!!!!

[REDSCOUSER]

It's mint mate.

Every LFC game is live, plus there is an unlimited supply of muff.

I cant leave.




Even if I wanted to.

you shagged so many of the tiny ones now they have ya hostage

[kurtangle01]

Going to be tough. Hope we make it, I fear the consequences if we do not.

Yep more than a match and CL qualification at stake.

The knives will definitely be sharpened in the press. I bet they've got their headlines written already.

[Dan]

Very nervous now.

Very surprisingly I'm not. No doubt I will be in about 5 minutes though

[Armchairkopite]

Feckin Nerves are gone

[Joe King]

Henry Winter on the official site

Henry, just how big a game is this for Liverpool?

Well it's huge. You could almost say the whole season depends on it because winning the league could be difficult. You look at Liverpool in Europe over the last few seasons and if anyone can get a team up tactically for a match it's Rafa Benitez. Personally I think he is the best manager in Europe for preparing a team for an individual occasion. We saw it famously last season with Barcelona. I don't buy into this doom and gloom and I think Liverpool will relaunch their season tonight.

What can Liverpool and Rafa learn from the game at Anfield?

It was a very disappointing result, and I think if you talk to any of the Marseille journalists and their fans they are still in shock that their team performed like that when their new manager Gerets had just come in. They were running on adrenalin that night, and I don't think they will be quite like that tonight. I think there will be a bit more pressure on them playing at home in front of their own fans. It is an amazing ground and Liverpool unfortunately have had problems there before. But I just think in all big European teams you look for a strong spine and there are few sides in Europe at the moment which have a spine as strong as Liverpool. Reina is an outstanding goalkeeper, Carragher is one of the best centre-halves in the Champions League and Gerrard, well we all know he can win games on his own. Mascherano, if he plays alongside him, is a great blend and then Torres is in the top three strikers in the world at the moment. So, I think they have got the strength throughout the team and a lot depends on the players in the wide areas. That is going to be so important because if Marseille have one vulnerability it's at full back. I think if Liverpool's wide players can get behind their full backs then they will turn them and win the game.

You mentioned Marseille's fans. They were incredible at Anfield, so how important will Liverpool's supporters be tonight?

I don't know how many Liverpool fans are coming but I think it's about 2,500. Whenever they put an official number on the amount of Liverpool fans over for a game you need to stick another nought on the end because I remember being in Barcelona last season and there were so many Liverpool supporters and it was a fantastic atmosphere. I think the Liverpool fans, even if there are only two or three thousand there, will make a huge noise and that's so important for the players because they are away from home. They are walking into a hostile stadium - it's the best atmosphere in France along with Lens. It doesn't match Anfield on a big European night but I think the fans that will be there will make the noise. The players who go out there tonight know how important this match is, not for financial obligations, but because they want to stay in the best competition in football – particularly the English players like Gerrard. It's been disappointing for him internationally, so the Champions League could be the peak of his season.

Are you confident the players can turn this around?

Do you know what: I've been to so many Liverpool matches over the years and, during the Olympiacos game I thought, 'No chance'. At half-time in Istanbul I thought, 'No chance'. At half-time in Istanbul I had written 900 words about tear-stained Liverpool, embarrassment and humiliation, and how Kaka was running the show. Then within six minutes it was stop the press, so you can never write Liverpool off. When you've got players with the quality of Carragher, Reina, Mascherano and Torres then that's half a team of outstanding individuals with some good supporting players around them. Plus the manager in Benitez and you saw at half-time in Istanbul the way he motivated the team. You have also got the fans and I remember the noise they made at half-time when they were singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. The players said Rafa left the dressing room door open so they could hear them singing. Benitez is brilliant for raising a team for a one-off game like this. Like he said yesterday, this is a cup final and Liverpool quite like cup finals.

A prediction, then?

I think Liverpool will go through. I just think there is so much quality in that team and they know that their season rests on this game, and when you've got that sort of desire and that sort of technical ability plus a shrewd tactician in Rafa Benitez, that's a good combination.

[kurtangle01]

Very surprisingly I'm not. No doubt I will be in about 5 minutes though

I wasn't until about 5 minutes ago. Now I'm shaking like a leaf.

[Armchairkopite]

Right goin down to crack open a miller, later mates.

[desertscouser]

The knives will definitely be sharpened in the press. I bet they've got their headlines written already.

I'm sure we'll go through but if we don't, then it has to be deemed as a MASSIVE failure.

[Tinkerbitch]

I wasn't until about 5 minutes ago. Now I'm shaking like a leaf.

Blurred visions, shaking hands, feel sick. Been a long time since I've felt this bad about a match.

[Dan]

****in hell this is a huge game for us.

We lose this and Rafa's good as gone, c'mon the Pool, let's keep the rafalution alive

[Joe King]

Blurred visions, shaking hands, feel sick. Been a long time since I've felt this bad about a match.

Was it the rohypnol?

[Tinkerbitch]

I'm sure we'll go through but if we don't, then it has to be deemed as a MASSIVE failure.

I agree but we've got to take a long term view, scum did when they failed to qualify

[mick the click]

Weird black kit/****e. No ta...