Liverpool v Benfica

Rafael Benitez has certainly proved his doubters wrong. Many people felt that last year's Champions League title was a fluke. This season has seen the clarification of Benitez' vision to the point where Liverpool look like the only team capable of challenging Chelsea's dominance in coming seasons.

Justin Zemhke, ITV News


Having said that, the 1-0 loss at Benfica was a disappointment to say the least. It also highlighted what we've known for some time - we can't score goals. Our attack seem to be serious allergic to the back of the net - think of all the blatant opportunities we've missed this season, they're particularly painful, when we control the game for 90 minutes and don't get the result. This was the case against Benfica last week. You find yourself losing all your fingernails and walking away in frustration because we can't finish.
Having said that, it was nice to see Crouch doing the business for England, at least now we know that he can find the net once in a while, perhaps we'll see a little of that for the Club, as opposed to 6 goals in 31 games this season.


My Opinion: Let's be brutally honest - if we can't get throught his second leg tie, it'll be embarrassing. We're the holders, for Christ sake - though I don't feel we've got the respect that we should.

Lets face it, on paper, we've got Benfica beat already, but its that scoring thing.....
If we can score in the first half, we should win this comfortably. Benfica will be looking for a draw, they've got talent, and they'll do whatever they can to defend their one goal lead without taking any risks - but we've got The Kop.

My biggest worry - going balls-out for the early goal and giving them one on the breakaway


Predicted Final Score: Liverpool 2 - 0 Benfica


The Betting:


Liverpool 14-1


Benfica 33-1