Fifa Club World Championship semi-final: Liverpool's players were still affected by jet lag last night as they made their final preparations for today's Fifa Club World Championship semi-final against Deportivo Saprissa, though the opportunity to set a club record should focus minds.
A clean sheet in Yokohama would extend the European champions' run of impregnability to 11 games, beating the mark set by Kenny Dalglish's title winners in 1987-'88.
Jose Reina has not shipped a goal in 13 games since October and might dare to consider eclipsing his compatriot Abel Resino's world record of 1,275 minutes without conceding at Atletico Madrid.
In the meantime the Spaniard will not underestimate El Monstruo Morado (The Purple Monsters) from Costa Rica.
"To beat the record would fulfil an ambition of mine to go into the history books for Liverpool but it is about winning more than anything," said Reina, a £6 million summer signing from Villarreal.
The goalkeeper has had a similar impact to Chelsea's Petr Cech in his first season in England, though it took a traumatic afternoon at Birmingham in September, when he conceded his first Premiership goals, to sharpen his game. "That was a real learning experience, to suffer and make so many mistakes, and was probably one of the worst games I've had," he said.
"But the important thing is I tried to improve afterwards. I am very critical of myself but I have learned from those mistakes and tried to do better. I am learning about the physicality of the game in England and what is and is not allowed, particularly in the six-yard box."
Reina, like some of his team-mates, nodded off during the video re-run of the Saprissa versus Sydney FC quarter-final on Monday, a reflection of the 15-hour flight to Japan and the tedium of the game.
The Costa Ricans were poor in victory and Liverpool's manager Rafael Benitez might rest key men ahead of Sunday's potential final against the Brazilians Sao Paulo, who defeated Al Ittihad yesterday.
With the exception of Boudewijn Zenden, who had surgery in Colorado yesterday to repair a cruciate knee ligament, Liverpool have a full squad to select from.
Saprissa's coach Hernan Medford is well aware of the difficulty of his task: "We play technical, touch football; English football is more powerful."
The Liverpool travelling party was already shorn of Republic of Ireland under-21 international Darren Potter, who is out for two months with a back injury, but youngsters David Raven and Danny O'Donnell were left on Merseyside as Benitez sticks with his tried and trusted squad.
Champions League hero Jerzy Dudek could make his first start of the season but is close to accepting his future lies away from Merseyside.
"My situation is very difficult at this moment," he sighed. "It's very difficult for me to prepare for games. I just had a conversation with the coach and at this moment we don't want to talk about this. We have a lot of games to come and maybe when the window opens we will get back at the table to sit and talk."
LIVERPOOL (4-4-2, probable): Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Warnock; Gerrard, Alonso, Hamann, Garcia; Morientes, Crouch.
DEPORTIVO SAPRISSA (4-4-2, probable): Porras; J Drummond, Gonzalez Brenes, Cordero, Badilla; Benneth, Azofeifa Corrales, Centeno, Bolanos; Gomez, Saborio.
Referee: C Chandia Alarcon (Chile).
Liverpool v Saprissa at Yokohama Stadium kick-off 10.20am
On TV: BBC2; Setanta Sports, 10.18am
