Liverpool FC Forum

[woof woof !]

  Can someone explain to me why the mighty reds the champions of europe game against benfica is relegated to itv's channel 4 ?     I'm sick and f'ucking tired of the uk media's treatment of our club .Real Madrid (remember them ? ) the team that hasn't won anything for two years v Arsenal (the team that won't win anything for at least two more years) is the match that ITV have chosen for their flagship channel   

Can't wait for Arsenal and Chelsea to get dumped on their collective a'rses,maybe then the tv execs will remember that the CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE A PREMIERSHIP SIDE ARE STILL IN IT YOU F'UCKING CHINLESS T'WATS ,TAKE TIME OUT FROM GIVING WENGER A BLOW JOB AND GET YER TONGUES OUT OF MAUREENS A'RSE , YOU C'UNTS  

Liverpool to win 2-1 btw .   

[Judge]

i think its to do with TV's licensing laws woof, and not by choice.

however, if you email them, it could turn out that im wrong mate

other than that, i dont know

[The_Rock]

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[Ciggy]

So back to the most important competition we are involved in, I love us playing in Europe Rafa gets his tactics spot on and our player excell in this competition.
Ive taken this from RAWK they ask other sets of fans questions on their forums for every team we face, maybe its a good idea to start it on here ? These Benfica fans have some very nice words for our club great respect.

From the Spyin Kop.



Q  Its great to see Benfica return to the big European stage.  You must feel delighted to be back?

Miguel -  Yes, definitely! It feels like waking up from a coma or something. We had been living a horrible nightmare that started in June 1994 and ended last year with our much awaited league title. During this period the club almost had to shut doors due to massive debts and irresponsible management. We also had the worst results of our 102-year history (both domestically and in Europe), failing to even qualify for the UEFA cup for two consecutive years (for the first time ever!)
Widespread corruption in our league made things even worse, Benfica never had a good team in this period but when a club (Porto) pays referees to deliberately make us lose games… Fortunately this is all being investigated (the trial should start soon) and I’m confident that Porto will be relegated to the 2nd division and their chairman will be sent to jail (fingers crossed!).
We’re now back where we belong, after all we have reached the European Cup final for 7 times and the UEFA Cup final once. We need to be in the centre stage of European football, and European football needs big clubs like us as well. European games have always been something magical, winning our domestic league is fine, but achieving success in Europe is what really distinguishes good clubs from legendary clubs. Arsenal -> Liverpool, for example.

Carlos - Oh yes I am...We all are!We didn't qualify to the CL since 1998 and we have been two seasons out of Europe, in 2001 and 2002.We have just recently came up from the deepest crisis in our history and the return to the main stage is being fantastic,specially for the youngest fans - as me - who didn't witness our great achievements in the past 60's and 80's.Our career is algo being delightful due to the strenght and loyalty shown by Benfica supporters - we silenced Old Trafford and El Madrigal,had more than 40.000 fans at Stade de France,created an infernal atmosphere against Manchester in the Luz...Prepare yourselves to meet Benfica fans

Paulo -Well, its been a while since Benfica reached the qualification for the Champions League. And I’m loving it! Right after the draw (and we were in the 4th pot) we all thought it was possible to get through the group stage. We could have finished 1st in our group, but having superbly crashed ManUtd was enough for me. Now, he have a great challenge: play the European Champion.
And watch out, cause the giant has awoken.

Antonio - After what our club has been through in the mid late ninties, nearly going out of existance, manegement scandal after manegement scandal, mediocrity and sheer dispair, it seems like Christmas everyday to see a new stadium, a prestine new training ground, a team full of talent, renewed hope and a growing number of "socios" or fully paid up members, in fact we are after a certain team from across the penines the club with the most members in Europe 170 thousand at the moment. Above all Benfica are where they belong, Champions of Portugal, playing other world class clubs like Liverpool.. If anything we are a living demonstration of how to completly screw up a world class club, and wipe the board and start again!! beating Man u (the Mancs to you guys!!! heheheh) was I believe the end of the begining for us! playing Liverpool will will be that next step.

Q 2.  Did you enjoy your group stage triumph over Manchester USA as much as we all did?

Miguel -  Nah, we enjoyed it much more. It was the confirmation that the sleeping giant had finally woken up. Besides, beating Man. Utd. Is always fun, I must say that I hate Manchester United, they make me sick with all that “we’re the biggest club in the world” rubbish. When they arrived in Lisbon, Ferguson was so arrogant saying stuff like “oh, we’re Manchester United so we will win for sure”, “we don’t care about Benfica”, “we are so much better”, etc, it made me fuc*ing angry! I think this made Benfica players angry as well, and in the end I must thank Fergie for helping make things a little bit easier for us with all that arrogant nonsense, if it wasn’t for that I don’t know if the players would have been so motivated. When we scored the 2nd goal I almost had multiple orgasms! And I’m sure the Leeds United fans were even happier than the Liverpool fans, our forum was full of them wishing us good luck before the game…

Carlos - I suppose the whole England(Liverpool,London,Leeds,etc.)enjoyed our victory over Man United.But I guess we enjoyed it twice as much you did!That game meant a lot to us,not only in the sporting side and re-conquest of some lost international reputation,but also in an economical side...The victory over the 'mancs',as you funnily call them,was also wonderful because we had 5 starters injured while they were in their greatest strenght and had some wins in a row.Finally,I will never forget the infernal atmosphere lived in the Estádio da Luz during the SLB-MUFC - completely shivery!!

Paulo -  We were absolutely amazed with our victory. Especially after Fergunson had been sayin all week we didn’t stand a chance. I believe we enjoyed it even more then you did.. we made an outstanding exhibition, and showed the world what we are capable of. Portugal was astonished, the millions of anti-Benfica had nowhere to stick in..
Also, a similar situation happened with us the next day, when our fcporto rivals were eliminated by rangers, and we were equally thrilled with that.

Antonio - Is the world round?? with out 5 very important Players, playing a club full of "superstars" needing to win and comming from behind!! that night I remember saying to friends (in a drunken stupor I admit) the spirit of Benfica has been re borne! the inferno of the "ESTADIO DA LUZ was back, after what we had been through it was a very emotional game . Also thank you to all Leeds and Liverpool fans for your messages of support at SL-BENFICA.COM in the weeks leading up to the game, they where much appreciated, particularly by me becouse I live in England.

Q 3. How is your domestic season shaping up?

Miguel -  This season has been like a roller coaster ride. We had an awful start, after the first 3 games of our league we were already 8 points behind the leaders… We then had 6 consecutive wins (including CL and FA cup), followed by 6 consecutive games without winning (including CL), then another 9 consecutive wins, including the one against Man Utd. As you can see we haven’t been very consistent… several straight wins followed by a handful of bad results.
Porto are the leaders with 48 points, followed by Benfica and Sporting with 43 points, Braga 41 and two teams with 39 points. Porto still have to play in Lisbon twice at Benfica and Sporting so I’m reasonably confident that we can win the title again but it’s going to be very difficult.. Beating Man. Utd. really helped to boost the team’s confidence and we had great games after that (those 9 consecutive wins). Confidence is a good thing, excessive confidence, on the other hand, is not. Because of that we lost 3-1 in Luz against Sporting a few weeks ago, a game we should have won under normal circumstances given the weak team Sporting have this year. That result really affected the team and the following week we had another 3-1 defeat, against Leiria. I hope I’m wrong, but these two games may have cost us this year’s title.

Carlos - Well,we have been very irregular at home so far.At the league we have already dropped 10 points in 33 matches in the Luz,including two humiliating losts against Gil Vicente and Sporting.IMO our great fault is the lack of attitude at the initial period of the game;we should start the game in a more intense way so that we could score 1 or 2 goals and then manage the result.However,the team prefers to sleep during the 1st halves,wake up by the minute 60 and then start to run desperately against the time.This succeeds specially in the Luz,I mean,I consider we play better away...Despite that,we defeated Lille and Man United here.So be aware
Paulo -  Our start was very lame; we only got one point in the first three games. However, we managed to recover pretty fine. After our win over the mancs (as you say), our team got motivated and went on to get 9 wins in row. Now, we’re 5 points behind the leader, fcp.. and for me the home league is first! Then Europe..

Antonio - inconsistant to a certain degree Ronald Koeman has taken a while to adapt to Portuguese football and our League which is much better than the Dutch League. We had a terrible start to the season loosing 8 points in the first three games, but we have also beaten Porto away and had a run of 9 games with out loosing or conceeding. As I wright this to you we won 4-0 yesterday. I believe we will win the "superliga" which is our main priority. The quality of the Portuguese League has grown considerably in the last 20 years so it is much harder to win but I am confident.

Q 4. We know about Simao Sabrosa.  Which other players should we look out for?

Miguel -  Hard to say, depends of what goes inside Ronald Koeman’s head… He likes to keep the best players out of the starting 11, for some strange reason. Our most dangerous players for this tie, especially for the second leg in Anfield where we’ll play in counter-attack, would be (in my opinion) Simao, Miccoli and Geovanni. Geovanni is an ex-Barcelona player, he can play as right-winger or striker, although he prefers to be upfront scoring goals and not to play on the RW. Miccoli is an ex-Juventus forward, in the style of Romario. The reason why you should be afraid is that they are small, lightening fast (except when Geovanni is playing on the RW) and very agile.
English teams/defenders usually have a hard time with these kind of players because they are used to face big, strong (and sometimes not so agile nor fast) strikers in the PL. Having said that it’s almost impossible that both Geovanni and Miccoli will be in the starting 11, they can’t defend and Koeman will probably prefer more midfielders and less forward players. There is also Nelson, our amazing right-back, if you watched our game against Man Utd you probably remember him. If you don’t know him, just imagine a faster, hard working and more intelligent Miguel (Valencia).

Carlos - At the moment Simão Sabrosa isn't our key player.He has been it for 4 seasons but not this year.Firtsly,he has been injured almost 3 months and the team won many games that period,which put an end to the called,by the portuguese press,Simão-dependence in Benfica(those 4 previous years we never won a match without Simão).Secondly,he seems to have lost motivation and joy when playing,probably due to the failed transfer to England.Even though I still think Simão is one of the top european left wingers and he must be target of your defense attention.I'll talk about the players you should fear in the following question.

Paulo-  I think Benfica’s worth for the whole, although we have some key players as well. Our rising star Nelson is probably one of Europe’s best right defenders. Our defence is also very strong, mostly because the ‘boss’ Luisao is an extraordinary CD. We also have Nuno Gomes, our best scorer – I think this last one doesn’t need presentations.

Antonio - Our strengh last season was our team ethic, as such I believe our unit as a whole can be fomidableour centre defence is composed of two brazilian international Luizao and Anderson, our two wing back Nelson and Leo. Leo is a current international for Brazil and Nelson to be quite honest is a fenomena!! what a player. in midfield we have Petit our "enforcer" or our Xabi Alonso if you like there is Simao of course and Laurent Robert on the wings to start against you guys. up front Nuno gomes and Geovanni should start, Nuno is in fantastic form and Geo is the man of the moment!.

Q 6.  What were your thoughts when the draw paired you with the reigning Champions of Europe?

Miguel -  I was happy to be honest. I wanted to avoid Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan, my preferred teams were Inter Milan, Arsenal and Liverpool. Inter Milan seem to be a bit stronger now, with Figo playing well, so that leaves Liverpool and Arsenal. Even though you are the reigning champions you are not the best team in Europe, and you know it. Cup competitions are always unpredictable, Porto won it, Liverpool won it, neither of these teams were the best, so everything is possible.
Besides, facing the reigning champions has its advantages, if we win, it will be a massive achievement, beating the champions and all that. If we lose, we can just say “well, we lost to the European Champions, they were the favourites, etc”. The pressure is on you, we’re the underdogs and we like it this way. We’re in the same situation you were last year, if you think about it.

Carlos - I hope you won't take this as an offense but I smiled when the draw paired our two teams.Despite Liverpool are the Champions of Europe it would be much worse to face(by this order)Juventus,Chelsea or Barcelona...I secondly thought on the atmosphere that would(and will)be created around the games in the Luz 'Hell' and at the mithic Anfield!

Paulo -  I smiled. It’s always great to play big teams. It will surely be 180 (maybe plus 30) minutes of fantastic football.. Just don’t know how much the responsibility of being Champions League and Intercontinental Cup holders will be a burden for you.

Antonio -  My Initial thought was "good draw!" for a few reasons. With all the respect in the world to a great club like Liverpool the two I wanted to avoid where Juve and Barca. However I believe Liverpool will be a much harder task than Man u becouse I believe they are a better side. It will be a great test for our team, our fans and our manegement, and it will be a HUUUUUGE honour to visit a mythical stadium such as Anfield, in an equally Mythical footballing town that is Liverpool. I can not wait!!!

Q 7.  What did you know about Liverpool FC before the draw?

Miguel - I didn’t know much about your current squad, but more about the club history, your trophies, your legendary players, your stadium. Benfica fans remember all too well the great Liverpool of the 80’s, in fact the first game I watched in Estadio da Luz was the 1984 match, Benfica 1-4 Liverpool (b@stards… you almost traumatized me for life). When I was a little kid Liverpool were the kings of Europe, if it wasn’t for the Heysel tragedy you could have won more European trophies. I remember Ian Rush, Peter Beardsley, John Barnes, Bruce Grobbelaar and many other players from the 80’s. Recently you’ve had other great players such as Owen, Fowler, Abel Xavier (the best of them all hehehe!) but your last league title was in 1990. I knew your stadium (I though its name was Anfield Road, not just Anfield) and that the atmosphere there is amazing but had never heard about the “Kop” stand. I was also aware that your city rivals are Everton, a bit like Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, but to be honest there’s no real comparison between these clubs except their location. Liverpool and Benfica are 150 times bigger and better than Everton and Sporting Lisbon respectively. I know some of your current players: Gerrard, Morientes, Dudek, Alonso, Cisse, etc, but don’t know much about your style of play, except that you have a strong defence and strikers, or so I heard. There’s also the Hillsborough tragedy, I watched it on the TV, but let’s not talk about that. RIP the 96.

Carlos - I've watched the most of your games since December and Liverpool's squad has great quality.Reina is a good GK but I don't think the defense is too strong - Hippya and Carragher aren't too fast and will probably feel difficulties with Geovanni and Nuno Gomes mobility;Finnan is a good defender but few offensive;at the left there's your best defender,IMO a World class player,called Riise...Liverpool's big strength is its midfield -
Gerrard is the fantastic player we all know,Xabi Alonso is spectacularly cerebral and has huge class,and Sissoko runs km's and is much tall.The tie will be mostly decided in this area and that's why I consider essential the work which will be done,or not,by Petit-M.Fernandes-Karagounis/Karyaka in both games.At the attack,your stars are Luis Garcia and Morientes - I really enjoy watching both of them!
I consider Kewell a skillful player but he is much inconsequent in his plays...Cissé will never be a great player - much pace and physical power but very few intelligence in and out of the pitch - and Crouch is just poor.Finally,you have at the bench the 3rd best coach of the World(below Capello and Mourinho)not only by his abilities managing the team but also by his healthy and right attitude dealing with his players and with the opponents.

Paulo -  I know you have a glorious past, and that you’ve “won it five times”. I also like your anthem – you’ll never walk alone – it’s seriously one of the most brilliant football club anthems I’ve ever heard.
‘Bout the present, I’ve seen many matches of ‘pool so far this season. I know every player of yours and your system of playing [4-2-2-2\ 4-2-3-1 preferably].

Antonio -Simple this one, I follow football a lot and there are 5 or six truly great European clubs Liverpool are without a shadow of dought one of them, not becouse they are rich but becouse they have a great history, very loyal fans and becouse they mean a lot to football lovers. Liverpool are a club who do things properly and who in my opinion are a bastion of the beutifull game. the others by the way are Benfica, Juve, Milan Barca Man and Real. The great Liverpool tem of the eighties are one of the seven wonders of the world! like we wher in the sixties and the late eighties.

Q 8.  Did you watch the final on May 25th, 2005?

Miguel -I only watched the first half and the penalty shoot-out hehehe! I thought “man, this is ridiculous, the worst final ever! Milan will win 15-0”. So I called a few of my mates and made our very own champions league tournament on the Playstation 2. When we finished playing the penalty shoot-out was about to start, we saw the final score… 3-3… <dramatization>we all started crying and banging our heads against the wall, how could have we missed that?!</dramatization>. Brilliant comeback from Liverpool. Watched the highlights of the match a bit later, but it’s not the same thing as watching it live. Oh well, this serves as a lesson.

Carlos -  Of course I did.At the break my brother told me "that game is already over for Liverpool,do you wanna go for a ride?".I answered him "no,if Milan scored 3 in 45 minutes why would Liverpool be unable to do the same?".And so they did!There was a moment at the final I will never forget - when both teams entered the pitch at the break,every Liverpool fans stood up,raised their scarves and chanted the 'You'll Never Walk Alone' from the deep of their soul..
It was wonderful to listen and watch that!That strength given by them meant much more than a simple goal!Well,about the game...Liverpool deserved to win it due to the magnificent 2nd half.But you also had divine help,specially when Sheva could have scored twice at the end of the overtime...

Paulo -  Woow, those 15 minutes killed me. I think Benitez has most of the credit for that victory. Playing with only 3 defenders was risky, even though Hamann was very defensive.. That was, I guess, the greatest recovery in a Champions League final. You deserved to win it on the penalties, and I congratulate you for that.

Antonio - Fantastic! I remember making a comment on SL-BENFICA.COM that the incredible Liverpool victory is a lesson to all that money is not everything!! I can draw a parrelel between that night and Istanbull and us winning the "superliga in that it was a victory for football values, for true team work for humility I was absolutly delighted although I was sad for the great Benfica Icon that is Rui Costa. It is safe to say that Liverpool is the most popular and respected English team in Portugal.

Q 9.  Which of our players do you fear?  And what are our weaknesses?

Miguel - I don’t fear any of your players in particular, not that they are , but in my opinion your strength lies in the team and how they perform as a unit, not in the individual talent of 2 or 3 players. Besides, to be honest you don’t have any players who can decide a game by themselves like Ronaldinho, Henry, etc, so you must take a different approach, it seems to have worked so far. Look at Real Madrid, lots of individual talent but no team, in today’s football that won’t take you very far.

Carlos - The player I fear the most is obviously Gerrard who is by far the best player in the team and one of the greatest world football stars.I also admire Riise,Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia.As I say above,your great weakness is the slowness of your defense.[ironic mode On]Ah,and I also fear a lot the killer instint from Peter Crouch [ironic mode Off]

Paulo -  I think your midfield is where you can rely. Sissoko, Gerrard and Xabi are magnificent players. But my favourite player is Luis Garcia, I think he can make the difference (as he did today).
I’m not very found of Fowler, I prefer Crouch, not that I find him a remarkable player.. Your main weakness is probably the defence. Even with the joining of Kromkamp I don’t think you’re defence is good enough for our attack. (hope not)
Your biggest weakness is by far the lack of quality of your strikers. Crouch, Cisse, Morientes… I wouldn’t want any of them to be honest. Great coach, quality keeper, strong defence, hard working midfield, but your attack is horrible. You now have Robbie Fowler again, but is he fit? He used to be an awesome striker, lethal as a Magnum .44 but haven’t seem much of him since he moved to Liverpool so I can’t comment on that.
There is also the “we’re much better than you so we’ll win easily” attitude of most English teams when playing in Europe, I not saying you have it but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the next coming weeks, amongst the fans or the players. Lots of users in this forum are already talking about the quarter-finals, or even making travel arrangements for the final where you’ll win it for the 6th time...

Antonio - Who do I fear??? Gerrard! what a player! Manuel Fernandes against him will be fascinating I also like Xabi Alonso, I believe down the wings in particular is where we can begin to beat Liverpool , also in my opinion Hypia and Carregher are ther for the taking BUT it will be difficult, Liverpool are what they are for there collective quality. Robbie Fowller comming back should be interesting also.

Q 10. We love European away trips..  Will we have a good time, and be welcomed in Lisbon? 

Miguel - Hell no! We’ll throw stones at you and burn your embassy!
Seriously, you’ll all be welcomed, I’m sure you’ll have a great time in Lisbon, whether Liverpool win or not. Benfica fans are very friendly (unless you are a Porto or Sporting supporter…), and I hope to meet some of you in Lisbon and have a few beers. You can make as much as noise and drink as much beer as you can in Lisbon, as long as you don’t cause any trouble the police will let you do whatever you want in Rossio square (your most probable meeting point for Tuesday afternoon).
The best Portuguese beer is Superbock, but make sure you eat properly before drinking heavily, that stuff is not for the faint of heart. The whether here has been quite nice for the last couple of days (18º C), unlike 2 weeks ago when it snowed in Lisbon (what the f*ck??!!) for the first time since 1952!

Carlos - You will certainly love the wonderful city of Lisbon and our magnificent Stadium.I don't know if any of you has been in Portugal during the Euro-2004 or at any other time,but the most of us are really nice and hospitable people.Benfica and Liverpool fans support two great and historical clubs and I'm sure we will all contribute to make a big feast before,during and after the game!

Paulo -  Hell yeah! Lisbon is a fantastic city, people here in Portugal are very kind, you’ll love it here, although I advice you to also pay a visit to Oporto, where I live. Don’t forget the food (especially pasteis de belém) The atmosphere before, during and after the game is amazing. Estádio da Luz is huge, can you imagine 65 thousand throats cheerin’? That will be an unforgettable trip for you, win or lose, I assure you.

Antonio - Portuguese make it a point of honour to make visitors welcome, without a shadow of dought you will be welcome to my home town! we on sl.benfica.com are planning to get together with your fans etc. Our fans are some of the most passionate in the world and our teams 12th player BUT no "welcome to hell" etc from us we are true Football fans. Lisbon is a wonderfull city with a lot to do, I also hope you guys enjoy the "CATEDRAL DO ESTADIO DA LUZ!" we are very proud opf our stadium it brings our club a lot of prestige we in Portugal call it the "cathedral" plus in Portugal we like the English so I believe all round you guys (off the pitch!! heheh) will have a great time and be made to feel very welcome it IS THE PORTUGUESE WAY! in fact if you are not we will take it personally!

Q 11.  What excites you most about your trip to Anfield?

Miguel - The legendary Anfield atmosphere is renowned throughout the world, I’ve downloaded some videos and audio files and you guys are great singers, have you ever considered a career in the opera?This is the first time I watch a Benfica game in England so it will be very special. I’ve never been to Liverpool either so I’m looking forward to it.

Carlos - I won't go to Anfield by many reasons though I would love to.Despite that I'll be in the Luz on the 21st of February - I've been counting the days to this game since December  - on the 3rd floor of the Stadium next to Liverpool fans

Paulo -  I won’t be at Anfield, unfortunately. I guess there’s no point telling you what doesn’t excite me.. But I think Anfield, alike most of the Premiership clubs’ stadiums, has a superb sound and atmosphere.

Antonio - As I have said before, to visit one of the truly great theatres of world football will be a huge honour and I can not wait! I hope to meet some of the users on your forum for a couple of pints as well!! I can not wait to set eys on the "this is Anfield sign" I will be taking many many photo's.

Q 12.  Care to forecast the scores in the two games between us?

Miguel - I expect a very boring and tactical game in Lisbon. Your defence and midfield are very strong but your attack is not, so you’ll not create many chances. We won’t create many chances either, your defence will destroy all our attacks so unless we get a nice free-kick for Simao I don’t see us scoring against you. Benfica will be under enormous pressure, we often find it difficult to play our best game at home where we are supposed to score or at least dominate the game, especially against defensive teams (the Man. Utd. game being the exception, but Liverpool has a different style of play). Rafa will be happy to get a draw here so that Liverpool can win the tie in Anfield. My prediction is 0-0.

Anfield, totally different game! You’re playing in front of your fans so you must attack and try to score as soon as possible. First 20 minutes will be extremely difficult for Benfica, you’ll probably make it 1-0, but you just wait until our speedy gonzalez Simao, Nelson, Leo, Geovanni and/or Miccoli start running along the line in lethal counter-attacks… I’m absolutely sure (I’ve even dreamt about it!) that we’ll score at least 1 goal in Anfield, and the final score will be 1-1 or 2-2.

Carlos - I rarely set my predictions right so I'd better say nothing...Even though I'll go for a 2-1 in the Luz and a 1-1 draw at Anfield.And there we go to the quarter-finals

Paulo -  Benfica 2 – 2 Liverpool
Liverpool 1 – 2 Benfica

Antonio - heheheh 3-1 to us in Lisbon and 1-1 in Liverpool (come on guys what did you expect me to say!!!) I expect a tight tight game

Q 13. Who will win the Champions League this season?

Paulo -  Asides from Benfica, which may be an outsider, I really think Lyon is my favourite, they’re playin massive football.

Carlos - That's a difficult one...I'd go for one of these: Juventus,Chelsea or Barcelona.If I had to say just one it would be Juventus,a true football machine!I keep some expectation about Lyon's performance...They've been being the 'underdog' in Europe since Santini's era but this year they are stronger than ever and may be a serious candidate to win the CL.If Liverpool is able to beat Benfica they might go till the final unless they are paired with one of the 'Big Three'.I wish Liverpool the best luck for the season whether they eliminate Benfica or not

Antonio - Benfica of course!! heheh my gut feeling since the beggining of this season has Benn Juve I watched them in pre season play us and they ae a MACHINE!!! but watch out for Barca! I f you do beat Us I will be cheering you guys all the way!!

all the best for the premiership!!
may the best team win and I hope this is a start of a great friendship between our two clubs!!!

[darwisigila]

dont worry mate....we will win....we will win....we will win....we will win...we will win....we will win...we will win....we will win.....we will win....we will win....we will win....we will win...we will win....we will win...we will win....we will win..............

[el_stinger]

Too long to read, lol

[SouthCoastShankly]

Shame for those who haven't got Sky, Cable or Freeview. Time to joint the Digital Revolution!

[dawson99]

woof, id lvoe it to be on itv, but the truth of the matter is that to the masses our game isnt as big, we got the so calleasy draw. and real madrid playing agaionst a premiership team will always attaract more viewers.

[the_red_alonso]

Well the Benfica supporters are delighted to draw Liverpool as they think it would be an easy affair.
BTH to Benfica ,it is Liverpool who are the happier of two teams.
Cant beleive they r still kind of under-rating our side,saying our defence is weak!!!!!!!!
Beleive me they will get a footballing lesson from Liverpool which even Jue or Barca couldn't have given them.
2-0 to the REDS at Lisbon
4-0 to REDS at Anfield.
just wait n watch

[DrTNT]

:angry:  Can someone explain to me why the mighty reds the champions of europe game against benfica is relegated to itv's channel 4 ?     I'm sick and f'ucking tired of the uk media's treatment of our club .Real Madrid (remember them ? ) the team that hasn't won anything for two years v Arsenal (the team that won't win anything for at least two more years) is the match that ITV have chosen for their flagship channel   

Can't wait for Arsenal and Chelsea to get dumped on their collective a'rses,maybe then the tv execs will remember that the CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE A PREMIERSHIP SIDE ARE STILL IN IT YOU F'UCKING CHINLESS T'WATS ,TAKE TIME OUT FROM GIVING WENGER A BLOW JOB AND GET YER TONGUES OUT OF MAUREENS A'RSE , YOU C'UNTS  

Liverpool to win 2-1 btw .   

I'll be watching the match on TV3 (as i live in NI) they have their priorities correct as they are showing the Liverpool match live  and extended highlights of the Arsenal - Real Madrid at 10 o'clock.

[SL_Benfica]

Dont underestimate benfica, my friends. Dont forget we have got nothing to lose, and that everyone thinks you are the favourites. Tomorrow will depend on how Benfica reacts to the internal crisis, and how liverpool reacts to the crowd pressure. If u score a goal in lisbon you will have good chances in qualifying, if u dont it will be a hard time for liverpool, and ill be there tomorrow to ashure that :P Full stadium, 62.000 (3000 english) supporting endlessly benfica and pressuring liverpool (remember man u...)

[Judge]

Hey SL_Benfica, after Tuesday, remember Liverpool

[Ciggy]

Dont underestimate benfica, my friends. Dont forget we have got nothing to lose, and that everyone thinks you are the favourites. Tomorrow will depend on how Benfica reacts to the internal crisis, and how liverpool reacts to the crowd pressure. If u score a goal in lisbon you will have good chances in qualifying, if u dont it will be a hard time for liverpool, and ill be there tomorrow to ashure that :P Full stadium, 62.000 (3000 english) supporting endlessly benfica and pressuring liverpool (remember man u...)

Your fans and ground wont bother our players Im afraid.
We are not Man U we are the most successfull english club in history, and we have played in more hostile enviroments than we will tomorrow mate.

[SL_Benfica]

With the current team? i dont think so... if you are talking about betis u are very wrong...

[stmichael]

as sabre famously said, "inferno in benfica my ar$e. try the grafton on a friday night."