LEVERKUSEN - The last time Liverpool visited the BayArena it proved a bitterly painful experience as Bayer Leverkusen used home advantage to win 4-2 and reach the quarter-finals of the 2002 Champions League.
On Wednesday, Liverpool have the chance to exorcise their Leverkusen ghost when the two teams come head-to-head at the BayArena in the second leg of their last 16 Champions League encounter.
"It was a terrible night for us because we thought we could go all the way in the competition," confessed Liverpool midfielder John Arne Riise.
This time around it is a meeting between two of Europe's most erratic teams with Liverpool and Leverkusen both capable of being brilliant or plain awful.
With a 3-1 lead from the first leg Liverpool are slight favourites but Bayer tend to turn on the style when the floodlights are switched on near the Rhine.
Bayer average three goals at home in Europe and have already defeated Real Madrid (3-0), Roma (3-1) and Dynamo Kiev (3-0) at the BayArena this season.
A 2-0 win would see Bayer progress on away goals and if this is the case Liverpool custodian Jerzy Dudek will ponder his late slip that allowed Franca to make it 3-1 at Anfield.
"We know how important it is to score at least once in Leverkusen," explained Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez.
The problem for the Spanish coach is finding someone to put the ball in the net with their only eligible striker being out-of-form Czech international Milan Baros.
Spanish international Fernando Morientes is cup tied and all of Liverpool's other strikers - Djibril Cisse, Florent-Sinama Pongolle and Neil Mellor - are out injured for the rest of the season.
"Big games need big players and we have them at this club," vowed Riise.
Benitez's most influential player, England international Steven Gerrard, missed the first game through suspension but returns to the fold.
Without Gerrard, who scored a last minute winner to defeat Olympiakos 3-1 in the group stage, Liverpool would be watching Leverkusen on the television instead of playing them.
While Liverpool have a dearth of striking options Leverkusen have problems at the other end of the pitch with three first-choice defenders injured.
Brazilian internationals Roque Junior, Juan and German international Jens Nowotny will all sit out the match meaning Carsten Ramelow will partner 20-year-old Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker at the heart of defence.
Robson Ponte and Paul Freier are missing in midfield due to suspension but Bayer manager Klaus Augenthaler still wants a vast improvement on the 1-0 loss against Hamburg over the weekend.
"We cannot play like we did against Hamburg," warned Augenthaler. "But then again Liverpool are hardly pulling up trees."
Liverpool fell to their 11th league defeat of the season with a 1-0 reverse at Newcastle United on Saturday.
Leverkusen and Liverpool are both capable of turning it on come Wednesday but what face these Jekyll and Hyde teams decide to show is anyone's guess.
03/08/2005 01:30