Marseille Vs Liverpool Preview

The games are starting to come thick and fast. After Saturday’s win against Manchester United we are now travelling to France this morning to face Marseille in the first game of the Champions League on Tuesday night. The team should be buzzing right now after getting that great win on Saturday and I am sure they will carry the confidence through to Tuesday.

We did not have the best of starts in last years Champions League and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves that we could have avoided. They say that you have to win all your home games in the group stages and pick up away draws and you will qualify to the next stage. But I am a firm believer that you have to go away from home and get three points. Thus it is important for us to get a win tomorrow night.

I have a lot of confidence in us when we play in Europe. We can beat any team on any given day so Marseille should not pose us much threat. After all we beat them 4-0 in the corresponding fixture last season. Mind you they beat us 1-0 at Anfield but that was a freak game we should just forget about.

Looking ahead to the game, it will be interesting to see who Rafa lines up with. I am not too sure if he will risk playing Gerrard and Torres from the start. After all, we were able to beat ‘the best’ team in Europe without the two. I would like to see Rafa start with the same 11 that took to the field on Saturday but we all know Rafa and his rotation policy that this will not happen. We also have to wait and see if Mascherano will be fit to play after picking up a knock on Saturday.

My starting 11 would be: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Dossena, Riera, Alonso, Lucas, Gerrard, Kuyt, Keane. If Macherano is fit then he will come in for Lucas. I feel Rafa will protect Aurelio as we know how injury prone he is and I feel Dossena is much stronger than Aurelio and especially away from home Dossena would prove to be a better defensive option.

My prediction: 1-0 win for Liverpool.