Venue: Anfield Tuesday, October 20th 2009 Kick-Off:19:45 Subscribe to Sky Now

Liverpool play host to Lyon later this evening in this Champions League fixture, which can be seen live on Sky Sports with a 7:45pm (BST) Kick Off Time.

Rafa Benitez and his Liverpool team have had a very tough few weeks lately and memories of the weekends loss to Sunderland by a beach ball will certainly be haunting them way past the end of the month Halloween Parties. Having already lost to Fiorentina 2-0, Liverpool really can't afford to lose this game against Lyon as it could mean an early exit from the competition.

Liverpool fans do have some hope though as Lyon lost their first game of the season at the weekend at home to Sochaux 0-2 and this result will certainly have had a huge impact in the confidence of the Lyon side.

Liverpool Team News

Gerrard is back having recovered from a groin injury that kept him out the defeat against Sunderland at the weekend, but Torres is still missing with an abdominal problem. This will mean Kuyt will lead the attack upfront on his own with Gerrard playing the support role from attacking midfield. Sotiris Kyrgiakos, Andrea Dossena and Albert Riera are all still out injured.

Lyon Team News

Cleber Anderson, Mathieu Bodmer and Jean Alain Boumsong will all be missing from the Lyon side tonight and both Michel Bastos and Cesar Delgado will undergo late fitness tests to see if they can play any part in tonights game. Govou and Kallstrom will return to the side having being rested at the weekend.

Summary

Liverpool certainly seem to struggle when Torres is missing and although they have Gerrard back in the side tonight they will still be lacking that important finess and precision up front. As mentioned earlier a defeat tonight for Liverpool would make qualification to the knock out stages of this competition extremely difficult and I fully expect Rafa to pack the midfield and try to keep as much posession as possible. Lyon who have won both of their Champions League fixtures so far will no doubt be effected by the weekends loss to Sochaux and face a very difficult task tonight.

From a betting point of view the Under 2.5 Goals @ 1.90 Skybet looks to be the market to concentrate on tonight as there is sure to be a lot of action in the middle of the park and a lot of the Liverpool attacks will certainly be going through Gerrard.

Dave's Prediction:

Liverpool 1-0 Lyon @ 7.50 with Skybet