If English giants and 2005 winners Liverpool lose to Lyon in France on Wednesday night their Champions League dreams could be all but over. Should Fiorentina beat Hungarian outfit Debrecen (a very likely occurrence) Liverpool will be six points adrift with just
two games left.
It makes for grim reading for the Anfield faithful, with their Premier League title hopes in tatters the Champions League represents a great chance for them to pick up some silverware and an exit in the group stages is virtually unthinkable.
Lyon will, of course, be no pushovers. They came back from a goal down to beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield the last time these two sides met and they’ll be confident on home soil. To make matters worse for the English club they’ll be without star player and ‘captain fantastic’ Steven Gerrard, while it seems unlikely Alberto Aquilani will start against Lyon, if indeed he makes an appearance at all.
Liverpool’s loss to Fulham at the weekend raised further questions about their strength in depth and whether they can mount a title challenge this season. They head into this fixture with Lyon as the underdogs in the betting markets and it will be a hard task for them to take all three points. The French side have some extremely talented players, such as Sweden’s Kim Kallstrom, midfielder Miralem Pjanic and French international Jeremy Toulalan. In attack Bafetimbi Gomis and Sidney Govou can cause plenty of problems for any defence and with Liverpool’s defensive problems (under performing and injuries) Lyon certainly have the potential to end Liverpool’s Champions League campaign.
That is certainly what Lyon winger Cesar Delgado seems to think anyway. Speaking to British tabloid newspaper the Sun he said: “It won’t surprise me if we beat them again,” the winger told The Sun: “It won’t surprise me if we beat them again,
“People thought Liverpool would be a fixture in the quarter-finals but now we make sure they are left out.”
“The problem with Liverpool is they are so inconsistent, with huge differences in the levels of their performances,
“We have analysed them against Manchester United and against Fulham and they are like two different teams.
“Nobody could doubt that we are the best team in the group. We can go a very long way.”
Delgado is right, there have been ‘huge differences’ in the Merseysiders’ performances through the course of the season and you never really know which Liverpool team is going to turn up on any given day. However, their fixtures against the bigger clubs have brought their better performances in general (a 2-0 win against Manchester United) and this fixture against Lyon is arguably their biggest of the season so far. They may just pick their performance up for this tie and they are very much capable of taking the French side apart, even in their own back yard.
Because of the significance of this tie and the implications should Liverpool lose this could well be the pick of this particular round of fixtures. AC Milan face Real Madrid in another must see game but thankfully that tie is today (Tuesday), while Liverpool play tomorrow. The Champions League can bring out the best in teams and Liverpool are greatly in need of a lift, it all depends on the players performances and whether boss Rafael Benitez can mastermind an upset in Lyon.
Written by Gareth Freeman, a sports writer promoting Irish racing betting advice for Betfair.
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