Henderson’s midfield battle with Kroos totally vital to Liverpool chances…
Liverpool are underdogs for tonight’s Champions League clash with the tournament holders, but the Reds have a huge and illustrious European history from which to draw upon to pull off a brilliant shock result.
They’ll need to come out on top in these five battles if they’re to pull off the extraordinary, however…
Karim Benzema v Martin Skrtel
The brilliant French striker acts as the pivot for Los Blancos’ draw-dropping attack. He drops deep and enables an onrushing Cristiano Ronaldo space to play in, and has the ability to find positions in the box and finish chances himself, too. Benzema’s technically exceptional, which aids his practically unrivalled holdup play. At Skrtel’s best (which to be fair, we haven’t seen for a while), he is physically imposing, and can dominate a forward aerially. Versus Benzema, the Slovakian will need to time his interceptions and his tackles perfectly, as if he storms out of defence and finds himself out of position, the striker and his teammates will slice an already shaky defence apart.
