Liverpool wary of Auxerre threat

Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek has warned his team-mates that Auxerre will be a tougher prospect in the UEFA Cup clash than in last week's match in France.

The English club go into the match at Anfield nursing a slim 1-0 advantage in a competition which now represents one half of their season's hopes.

But Dudek is urging his team to put aside Sunday's League Cup final against Manchester United and focus on beating Auxerre, who have exciting French international striker Djibril Cisse available for the fourth round second leg match.

"This is a big game for us and we are desperate to keep the result we earned in France last week," Dudek told Liverpool's club website.

"I think it's going to be hard for us though because Auxerre are a better team away from home than they are at home.

"We have to be clever with our tactics and try to forget that we're 1-0 ahead. We must put that to the back of our minds and start again.

"I think Auxerre will be more dangerous this time than they were last week. If you look at their results away from home then you can see they are a good side. Remember, they beat Arsenal at Highbury. But if we produce our best form then we are capable of getting through the tie."

Liverpool's fading challenge for the Premiership title was snuffed out by defeat to Birmingham on Sunday in a match that Michael Owen started on the bench.

However, the former European Footballer of the Year rose from the bench to score his side's goal in the 2-1 defeat and one of Liverpool's greatest ever strikers, Ian Rush, is convinced Owen can break his club record for goals in Europe.

Owen has 19 goals to Rush's 20, but Rush believes the England striker is rounding into form and can score at least twice against Auxerre.

"I will be more than happy on Thursday night if Michael does it," said Rush. Of course strikers are selfish and want to keep hold of their records, but Michael is only one goal behind me and there is no doubt he is going to break it at some point."

Midfielder Steven Gerrard, suspended for the Premiership but available in Europe, is expected to play and El-Hadji Diouf may partner Owen in attack.

Veteran Auxerre coach Guy Roux has had to lift his players after a 1-0 defeat to Monaco on Sunday.

"It is hard to play two big matches in the same week," he said. "

Liverpool's incentive for holding on is a mouthwatering Battle of Britain in the quarter-finals against Celtic, providing the Glasgow giants manage to protect their 3-1 first-leg lead against VfB Stuttgart in Germany.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill took the drastic step of dropping ten of the players who played in last week's match when his side beat St Johnstone 3-0 in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup at the weekend.

Those players, including captain Neil Lennon, will return rested for the clash at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion.

"I know there was a lot of changes, but we won the game and even though there will be changes again on Thursday the players will all play their part again," said O'Neill.

The other favourites for the Cup, Lazio, have a tough job against Wisla Krakow in Poland with the tie poised at 3-3.

Fixtures (first-leg scores in brackets)

Boavista (Por) Hertha Berlin (Ger) (2-3)

Anderlecht (Bel) v Panathinaikos (Gre)

Besiktas (Tur) v Slavia Prague (Cze) (0-1)

Liverpool (Eng) v Auxerre (Fra) (1-0)

Wisla Krakow (Pol) v Lazio (Ita) (3-3)

VfB Stuttgart (Ger) v Celtic (Sco) (1-3)

AEK Athens (Gre) v Malaga (Spa) (0-0)