THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LIVERPOOL, England — Liverpool will head into Wednesday’s match wary of Hungarian champion Debrecen, which will be hoping to mark its first visit to Anfield with a Champions League victory.
Liverpool, with its five European Cup titles, is the overwhelming favourite to win the Group E match, but midfielder Lucas said the team won’t be taking Debrecen lightly.
"If they are playing in the Champions League they will have some quality," the Brazil international said of a team which has won four of the past five Hungarian league titles. "Maybe they will know more about us than we know about them so that makes them dangerous.
"Our staff will have been working to get videos of them and we will be ready."
Debrecen’s only previous visit to England ended in 3-0 qualifying round loss to Manchester United in 2005. That led to a 6-0 aggregate loss after the second leg at home.
This is the first time Debrecen has made it to the group phase of the competition, becoming the first Hungarian club to reach this stage since Ferencvaros in 1995-96.
By contrast, the Reds last won the title in 2005 and lost in the final two years ago.
"It is the most important competition in the world and every player wants to play in the Champions League," Lucas said. "We know how our supporters feel about watching the team in these matches. It is very special."
Liverpool, which hasn’t won the English league title since 1990, has had an inconsistent start to the Premier League campaign this season with three victories and two losses.
"We always know we must start well in the group," Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said. "We lost our first game a couple of seasons ago against Marseille. That caused us a lot of problems and it was hard to qualify from the group.
"The first game is vital. We must be in control of the group straight away because we then go to Florence next and Fiorentina will be tough, all Italian teams are tough at this level."
Fiorentina visits Lyon in the other group game.
Although Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu looks likely to miss the game with a thigh muscle injury, Alberto Gilardino, who scored three times against Lyon last season, will start. He ended a scoreless run with a goal in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Cagliari in Serie A.