The Finn in Anfield's defence remains hugely ambitious at the grand old age of 32, he assures Dominic Fifield
Sami Hyypia is rarely prone to hyperbole but such has been the anticipation before the latest spat between European and Premiership champions, even the Finn's deadpan has served to stoke the razzmatazz.
"I can see more and more huge games in the future for Liverpool, just like this, but I am not getting any younger," he said. "I need to go into these games as if they are my last finals, my last chance."
The suggestion was that Hyypia, 32 and a veteran of 367 games for Liverpool, is on borrowed time, a legacy perhaps of Rafael Benitez calling the centre half into his office at Melwood on the first morning of pre-season training last summer to inform the player his principal objective in the transfer market was to sign a central defender.
The reality has proved rather different. This afternoon's semi-final against Chelsea will be Hyypia's 55th club game of the season, the most by any Liverpool player and hardly an indication of a career winding down toward retirement.
Yet the emphasis the defender has placed on today's tie is an indication of a deep-lying urgency within the Merseysiders' squad to usurp the Premiership leaders. Familiarity has bred simmering enmity between these two teams, a legacy of nine highly charged meetings in 18 months, with Chelsea long since hoisted where Liverpool desire to be.
Benitez's haste to assemble a squad capable of challenging Jose Mourinho has already seen two young centre halves signed - Daniel Agger moved from Brondby in January and Gabriel Paletta is due to arrive from Banfield in the summer - though Hyypia will not move aside willingly.
"I'd signed an extension keeping me here for two years but, when the manager told me he wanted a centre back to compete with me and Jamie Carragher, my reaction was still 'fine with me'," he said.
"Competition is a challenge, keeping everyone on their toes. Your concentration has to be perfect all the time, though given what he'd said I didn't expect to play over 50 games this season. You have to take care of yourself physically, but I have always done that and tried to do my best every game. It can actually help if you know there is someone sitting on the bench, trying to get your place."
Such ambition has not always laced Hyypia's outlook. Having gone against the grain in Finland to pursue a career in football when ice hockey or cross-country skiing might have represented safer options, he appeared to have progressed as far as he was ever likely to when he left the Finnish part-timers MyPa to join the Dutch top-flight club Willem II.
"Finland isn't a big football country, and I tried the other more popular sports, but maybe I was too nice to be an ice-hockey player," Hyypia says now.
"Maybe I'm too nice to be a footballer too, but I did my school properly, my 11 months of national service, and thought I'd concentrate on football for a couple of years with the possibility of a place at university to fall back on.
"To go to Holland was a good step forward for me and I thought it would be the peak of my career. Certainly, during that time with Willem II I wouldn't have believed I would go on to achieve what I have. I'd have just laughed.
"But Liverpool started watching me (originally in Finland's friendly against Germany in 1998) and sent a scout when we played Sparta Rotterdam. We lost 4-1 and they didn't come back for six months, a really frustrating period. I thought I'd blown it, so to come here eventually, to the club I'd supported as a boy, was a dream come true.
"Since then we have won so much, from FA Cups to League Cups and then the Champions League, and I'm happy to have played 54 games this year. I'll settle for 53 next season.
"We are progressing and the Premiership table shows that we won't be 37 points behind Chelsea at the end of the season again. Closing the gap was our first target this year, and we've achieved that. We have definitely secured third. We are moving forward."
Yet Liverpool and Hyypia have been here before. Back in 2002, a late charge saw them finish as runners-up to Arsenal only for form to fall away in ensuing seasons. Their league record against Chelsea - four consecutive defeats - suggests they may be some way off challenging yet, with Hyypia in particular enduring a torrid afternoon at Didier Drogba's hands in the 4-1 defeat in October.
"Physically, Drogba is very tough, a strong man, quite quick and good in the air, so he's a very tough opponent to play, but I'm not out there alone," added Hyypia. "I have my team-mates to help me. We are ready.
"It'll be exciting to see what happens in the summer transfer-wise, but the indications are promising. The objective now is to earn an FA Cup winners' medal, but I want that championship medal more than ever because it's the only one I don't have. How many times do you have to play to get the medal? Ten? Even at 33, I should be able to manage that."
Guardian Service
