Liverpool hosts Atletico Madrid in a very important Group D match of Champions League 2008-09 tonight (4 November 2008). The match will take place at the Anfield stadium of Liverpool with both sides looking to picking up all three important points. On the back of a disheartening 2-1 loss away at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, Liverpool will be gunning for a comprehensive victory against the Spanish side in what would not only earn them three points and qualification into the round of 16, but also boost up their confidence level. For Atletico Madrid, they will look to continue their recently-found good form that saw winning two out of their last four matches, besides two draws.
Match: Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid, Group D, Champions League 2008-09
Date: 4 November 2008, Tuesday
Venue: Anfield
Kick off: 19:45 BST (British Standard Time)
Liverpool’s unbeaten run in this season ended after suffering a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. With this defeat, Liverpool has moved down to the second place in the league table, losing the top spot that they earned after pulling off a confidence-booster 1-0 victory away at Chelsea. From 11 matches, Liverpool has equal 26 points of leader Chelsea, but sits in the second place on goal difference. So, they are still very much in the title race of the league. Liverpool has got off to one of the best start to the current premier league season in the last few years. The All Reds spent some miserable time in premier league over the last few seasons, but their performance so far this season has come as their rescuer from the critics who adversely wrote off Liverpool’s chances of retaining the league title.
In Europe too, Liverpool got off to a good start in the Champions League campaign with a 2-1 away victory over French club Marseille. In the second match, Liverpool defeated Dutch club PSV Eindhoven 3-1 at home, before being forced to draw with Atletico Madrid away after suffering a late equalizer by Simao. So, Liverpool is now atop the point table of Group D with 7 points from 3 matches thanks to two wins and a draw. If Liverpool can bounce back from the loss at Tottenham Hotspur and win over Atletico Madrid today, and Marseille defeats PSV Eindhoven, then the English club will be through to the knock-out stage of the tournament.
Similarly, Atletico Madrid, who sits just behind Liverpool in the second place in the table with same 7 points of Liverpool, can also ensure their qualification into the round of 16 with a victory over Liverpool tonight, but to do so, Marseille must win over PSV Eindhoven too. Atletico Madrid started their Europe mission with an emphatic 3-0 away victory over the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. In the second match, Atletico Madrid defeated Marseille 2-1 at home, before making a 1-1 draw with Liverpool at home. With PSV Eindhoven and Marseille standing at the third and fourth place with 3 and 0 points respectively from three matches, Atletico Madrid will still find their hopes of getting into the knock-out stage alive, even if they lose the match at Liverpool. However, at least a point from the match would boost up their confidence level further.
Atletico Madrid’s domestic form so far this season is not impressive at all. The Madrid based club has managed only 13 points from 9 matches with 4 wins, 4 defeats and a draw and secures the 6th place in the league standing with 9 points behind from leader Barcelona. Atletico Madrid was under huge pressure before taking on Liverpool at home couple of weeks ago as they went into the match on the back of three back-to-back league defeats. However, they managed to pick up a point from the match thanks to a late equalizer. Since then, Atletico Madrid seems to have been back in from and looks stronger and more confident. In fact, their recent form looks better and leaves some hope for the fans who are frustrated at the overall performance of Atletico Madrid this season.
Liverpool striker Fernando Torres might come back in action to take on his former club after spending about a month on the sideline with a hamstring injury. His participation in the match is not yet confirmed but, there is every possibility Torres could be back in the starting line up of Liverpool against Atletico Madrid. Considering the fact that there is no other major injury problem in the squad, except the long-term absentee Martin Skrtel, manager Rafael Benitez may not rush Torres for the match, if he can not recover fully from his hamstring injury. Captain Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and Robbie Keanea are there to take a stern test of Atletico Madrid at Anfield tonight.
For Atletico Madrid, there are some injury concerns. Defenders Giourkas Seitaridis and Tomas Ujfalusi have been ruled out of the match with injury. Goalkeeper Gregory Coupet will be back in the starting line up after recovering from injury.
Online Live Score and Updates
Here, I am giving some names of online live score and update websites from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:
Live Score
Goalzz
Live Football Scores
Goal.com
Footie Scorez
Liverpool will have home advantage and they have a balanced side who won many matches so far this season and did not have any big blow, except the recent loss at Tottenham Hotspur. So, I think, Liverpool is favorite for the match. Having said that, I would like to say that you can not simply write off Atletico Madrid who have indicated to come back in from recently. So, I guess, there will be an interesting match between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid at Anfield.
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