LFC to Play Friendly Against Old Champions League Rivals - Part 2

Liverpool will continue their pre season training camp with a friendly against another familiar team on Saturday.

We faced an Olympicos team (containing the Brazilian great, Rivaldo) during the group stages in last season's Champions League. It was they who put our whole Champions League season out of whack when they became the first Greek side to beat Liverpool in Greece. The result that day was 1-0, and with the last day of the group stages Liverpool were third, behind Monaco and Olympiacos in top spot. With Monaco playing an already eliminated Deportivo La Coruna, LFC knew they had to win against the group leaders by two goals without conceeding the all important away goal.

The worst possible start happened when Rivaldo, an inspiration for the Greek side scored from a direct free kick that went through the wall and into the back of the net. With the away goal scored (and Monaco destroying Deportivo), Liverpool would have to produce three goals against this heavily defensive side to qualify for the knockout stages or find themselves competing in the UEFA Cup again.

LFC went into the break without scoring, but Pongolle scored after some great work by Kewell (honest) 2 minutes into the second half to tie up hte scores. After that Liverpool laboured, but couldn't find the net. On 78 minutes lone striker Milan Baros, who was back playing after missing the last five through injury, was brought off for the young gun Neil Mellor. It was the little difference that the team needed and Mellor scored from close-range within two minutes of his introduction to put Liverpool ahead on the night.

It was a that point the Kop really felt like the was there's to take. As for me, I remember feeling from that point on that this was it, it was desiny, LFC would lift the primier European Crown, the Champions League was there to take!

With four minutes left of regular time, our great captain, Steven Gerrard, who fired home the dramatic winner to give Liverpool a 3-2 aggregate head-to-head score and garantee us entry to the knock-out stages. Little did we know that as great as that celebration was it was only the beginning, and that it would be our second great escape in the Champions League. The victory lead to comprehensive two-legged wins over Beyer Leverkusen, and memorable nights against Juventus, Chelsea and then AC Milan in the greatest ever comeback in Eurpoean history!

This friendly certainly won't have the same energy as that second game, but it will prove a strong test to Liverpool who need to test themselves a gruling pre-season that includes Champions Leagu qualifying. After this the team will be preparing to face FBK Kaunas in Lithuania for the first leg in the 2nd round of Champions League on Tuesday.

The Olympiacos game will be an evening kick-off at 8:45 pm, local time (7:45pm GMT; 2:45pm EST; & 11:45am PST).