European football returns to Anfield on Thursday night as PFC Levski Sofia from Bulgaria are the visitors in the first leg of the UEFA Cup 3rd round.
Both sides are unbeaten in the competition so far this season. Levski had to play a qualifying round against Atyrau of Kazakhstan, winning 4-1 away and 2-1 at home. Levski won both legs of the next round 1-0 away and 4-0 at home against H Ramat-Gan of Israel. They faced a much tougher task in round two, only going through on away goals against Slavia Prague. The first leg in Czechoslovakia ended 2-2 and the goalless draw in Bulgaria saw Levski through.
The player Liverpool will have to watch out for is forward Georgi Ivanov who has already scored 4 goals in the competition. The 25-year old averages over a goal every two games for the club and has one Championship medal and two National Cup winners medals to his collection.
Sofia currently stand second in the their national league and are three points behind the leaders Lokomotiv Plovdiv. Sofia have won their last six league games and are unbeaten in their last nine. They have only been beaten twice all season, both times by Plovdiv, once in the league and once in the National Cup. Sofia won 3-0 away at Vidima Rakovski last week in their latest league game to keep the pressure on the leaders.
Liverpool may need a goal or two in the first leg as Sofia have not tasted defeat at home since August 2003 when Dinamo Kiev won 1-0 in a qualifying round of The Champions League. They have since gone on a run of 24 games without losing on home soil.
If Sofia are on top of their game at the moment, then the opposite can be said of Liverpool. Dumped out of the FA Cup by Portsmouth on Sunday, the UEFA Cup is now the last chance of silverware this season.
This season's UEFA Cup has had an Eastern European flavour so far for Liverpool, Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana were despatched in the first round and Steaua Bucharest of Romania sent packing in the next round. Scoring goals has also been a problem for Liverpool in the competition so far, with only Michael Owen (2), Harry Kewell (2), Antony Le Tallec, Emile Heskey and Djimi Traore finding the net in the four games played.
It remains to be seen if Houllier continues with the five-man midfield or goes with two strikers now that Milan Baros is back. Florent Sinama-Pongolle was carried off on Monday night during a reserve outing and will be out for at least a week. Harry Kewell and Emile Heskey are both slight doubts for the game with ankle and back injuries. Chris Kirkland looks set to continue in goal. Senegal's El Hadji Diouf will return to the squad but his compatriot Salif Diao is out injured.
Posted by anfieldreds
at 1:51 PM GMT
