Do or die mission that will bring tears and smiles to the 4 clubs supporters....


Reina
Finnan - Carra - Agger (Hyypia) - Arbeloa
Benayoun - Gerrard - Mash - Kewell
Torres - Kuyt

subs:
Itandje
Hyypia
Riise
Babel
Crouch
Lucas
Voronin

i guess on the 11 decembre we are all marseillais

Yep, let's all hope for great victories to Porto and Marseilles!

Liverpool will stroll through. Gerrard will have another blinder. Kewell will finally show his potential on that left side and Torres will bang a few in. No problem.

Since we only need a draw, I wouldnt do anything outlandish. I dont think theres any need to attack unless we are losing. So in saying that Id give Marsaille the proposition 'Attack at your own risk'.

----------------------------------Reina-------------------------------

-----------------Carragher-----Hyypia------Arbeloa---------------

------Finnan-----------------------------------------------Riise-----

----------------Gerrard-----Mascherano-------Lucas--------------

---------------------------------Kewell-------------------------------

--------------------------------Crouch-------------------------------

Reserves:
Itandje
Aurelio
Agger
Sissoko
Babel
Benayoun
Torres

Id play this formation and catch Marsaille on the counter. I think if we played this, Marsaille would be very, very wary of attacking and consequently the game would become a stalemate because of the threat of a counter attack. I dont think there is any point in playing attacking players unless we go 1-0 down. In saying that, I dont expect Benitez to play this; this is just what I would do

Geez your optimistic, dont forget England and Euro

We HAVE to win. If we draw it, then its up to Besiktas to qualify us. How awful a situation would that be

Its simple, we win and we go through. We loose or draw and we dont - we cannot expect Porto to loose. We need to have a go at Marseille and im predicting Rafa to play a very offensive lineup. He'll want to get 3 or 4 goals in the first half and then sit back, rather than play conservatively and hope we get one of the counter, because we probly wont.

I can see all Kewell, Gerrard, Torres, Benayoun, Crouch and Masch starting. Arbeloa and hopefully Aurelio on the flanks. Those 8 players have goals written all over them and we will be outlandish in our approach meaning we will concede too

I would also like to see Rafa batter Marseille. Im not just speaking by 2 or 3, but by 5 or 6. This is a huge night for Liverpool FC as if we draw or loose, we may loose the best manager we've had for 10 - 15 years. Lately i've seen a different Rafa and he doesnt seem afraid to play luxery and attacking players anymore. Dont be surprised if we see Babel in place of Crouch

Aussie your team also has 10 players. 5 of which are defenders.

oops my bad...i was meant to include Lucas in there. Sorry misread the first post. If that is the case then you are spot on with the players you've chosen. However, I wouldnt want to start Aurelio. Hes returning from injury and no where near match fit.

----------------------------------------------Reina--------------------------------------------

-------Finnan----------------Carragher---------------Hyypia------------Arbeloa-----------

-------------------------------------------Mascherano-----------------------------------------

--------------------------Gerrard---------------------------------------------------------------

--------Benayoun-------------------------------------------------------------Kewell-----------

---------------------------------------------Babel-----------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------Torres----------------------------------------------

As tempting as it is to start Crouch, I think Babel is the way to go, simply because I think hes much more of a handful than Crouch at the moment. Babel will offer alot more flair and creativity than Crouch but I will be in no way disappointed is Crouch starts; hes a fine player.

Id go with

Reina
Finnan-Carragher-Hyypia-Arbeloa
Gerrard-Masch-Lucas
Babel-Torres-Kewell

Thats our strongest team imo and i hope Rafa goes with it. With 3 in midfield we'd be able to control the game and dictate the play with Lucas.

You Liverpool fans are underestimating Marseille too much.
It's one of out biggest night since 1993. We have not lost against English opposition in the last 6 games at the Velodrome. We beat the champions Man Utd in 1999, Newcastle and Liverpool in 2004...
The players will be up for this game as will the fans.
We haven't lost a game for the past 5 weeks. Nasri is back, Ziani reaching top form and Niang a goalscoring machine at the moment. Mandanda is fantastic in goal.
I'd go 2-1 for OM or 1-1.

I dont under-estimate Marseille for a minute. I dont even expect us to be favourites here. This is a very tough game, up in the toughness of the Arsenal match and after the romping they gave us at home, I know exactly how difficult this match will be. The players will need to all be on their A showing, and we will have to play as a unit. Rafa's said, we have the edge with big game players, so nows the time for those players to prove it again. It doesn't get much bigger than this

Wait a minute. If Liverpool draw, don't they still get eliminated? They will still be level with Marseille with 8 points, but Marseille will go through on head to head. If Porto win or draw, they will win the group. If they lose, Besiktas will win the group with 9 points.

How is the situation where Liverpool can draw and still go through?

If we draw and Porto lose, than we and Porto will have same points, but we have better record head to head.

1. Besiktas
2. Liverpool

Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt will lead the Liverpool forward line in Marseille tonight as the Reds bid to keep their European dreams for this season alive. Harry Kewell also starts on the left side of midfield while Yossi Benayoun is recalled down the right.

The team in full for the clash in the Stade Velodrome is:


Subs:
Itandje, Finnan, Aurelio, Crouch, Babel, Lucas, & Hobbs

But a draw also leaves you with the same points as Marseille, and they have a better record against you with 1 win and 1 draw. At least that's what the tables at ESPN look like right now, they have you on 3rd spot, and a draw wouldn't leapfrog you over him unless there's something i've missed.

1. Besiktas - 9
2. Marseilles - 8
3. Liverpool - 8
4. Porto - 8

I think Sky is right there...

I'm pretty sure that in a 3-way tie that goal difference takes over. If I'm correct, then we'd go through because, well, we scored those 8 goals.


---------------------

Marseille line-up:



Zenden starts!!!!!! Victory is ours!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/e...les/default.stm

But if Liverpool and Marseille draw and Besiktas pull off a shock by beating Porto, the Reds would go through. In this scenario, Liverpool, Marseille and Porto would all be on eight points. Liverpool would go through with the best goal difference in the head-to-head matches between the three teams.

We draw, and Beskitas win, then we're through.

Ahh, makes sense now. The new rules try to ensure that the better team goes through, but sometimes are confusing as heck.

Starting out on a very fast pace. Someone gets nailed immediately after kickoff

Kickoff.


Do or die (and then listen to a hundred Manchester United fans make fun of us).

Also, insert obligatory rant about how much Riise sucks and shouldn't be starting here. Finnan or Aurelio should have started.

Gotta be a fuckin red. Scandalous. If that's 70 minutes into the game he's off. Ref bottled it.

Penalty. Gerrard goes down and scores the rebound from the PK.

outstanding goal by Torres ......brilliant.......

fernandoooooooooo 2-0

we are through

Torres beats 4 players to score.


There goes my prediction of a nice draw getting us through.

Not yet, we could still fuck this up.

I'm happy for Liverpool. They don't deserve to be knocked out so early. I'm also happy for the spaniard torres!

btw espn's coverage is ruining it for me.

is anyone watching that on tv ants?

Nasri on for marseille


Liverpool should be careful of this talented youngster.....

Nasri is clearly a class above his teammates, now I see where the Zidane comparisons came from. First touch is non-existant in Marseille, all except for this boy.

Carragher booked in the 29th.

I agree 100%. This kid will be a monster in a few years.

Yeah Nasri looks good. Can't say I've seen him play before though, so can't really judge him.

Canna booked in the 41st.

2-0 at half-time and all is looking well.

Faty in for Givet in injury time of the first half. I assume Givet's injured. Either way, they now only have one more substitution.

2-0 at halftime... Going to be really really hard for Marseille to score 2 goals, but I think we can do it if we don't do defensive mistakes and keep the offensive pressure on Liverpool.

Shocking, shocking defending by Marseille. Torres cut through them so easily you would of felt it was a training session when you're not allowed to be too hard on players. Liverpool have been dominating the whole game except one or two snatches by Marseille. They're shooting from long range which is doing them no good what so ever. They've looked a bit lively since Nasri's introduction, let's hope for a more spirited second half.

I have a felling that we played just enough to score two goals, Torres and Kewell had great chances to kill this match, hope we will not miss that chances in second half.

Cisse in, Zenden off.

Wow, they're going for it. Cisse, lazy bastard that he is, can score some crucial goals. This will be interesting (until one of their players gets injured and they have to play with 10 men).

Game over boys.

Kuyt scores in the 48th. He has time to trap and control a cross from Kewell. This looks very healthy for us indeed.

ok stop scoring more goals now or they will say that the mafia is backing liverpool again

kuyt!!!

Mareille's defense is horrible. Torres is giving them nightmares.

Aurelio on for Kewell in the 67th

Mandanda makes a mistake and Kuyt put it away well. Have to say, Marseille have played worse than Derby County. It's been Liverpool throughout, Reina hasn't even been tested yet. Comical really from Marseille.

We seriously wasn't.

Babel in for Torres 77th.

Ryan 'The Boy' Babel. 4-0

4-0 Babel.

To easy.

Nice goal by Babel.