CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/First Phase: Liverpool will have to step out of character if they are to remain in this season's Champions League. With victory over Basel a necessity, Gerard Houllier's side cannot depend solely on patience. To spare themselves a nerve-racking evening they will have to heap all the anxiety on the opposition.
Though that is not the type of display associated with a compact line-up, the Champions League is supposed to test clubs and make new demands of them. Houllier can sound obsessive in the summaries he so often makes of Liverpool's progress and, today, the calendar is inspiring him to yet another audit.
Four years ago Roy Evans was jettisoned and the Frenchman took sole charge of the management duties. Travelling alone, he has covered the ground at far greater pace. Houllier ticked off the three trophies collected and the quarter-final spot in the Champions League last season. "We have put Liverpool back on the European map," he said.
He feels compelled to confront all the critics who respond so listlessly to his side. He was making his case once more in the aftermath of the defeat at Middlesbrough on Saturday.
"When the team desires something they can be awesome," he said of the reaction he expects. "Instead of being a 'must-win' game, this is a 'will-win' game. We are not writing Basel off, but we are coming off the back of a defeat. We are hurting. It will be difficult playing us."
The footballers, too, appear to be stoking their resolve. They have had to assimilate the knowledge that Basel, after last week's 2-0 victory over Spartak Moscow in Russia, are in the ascendancy. "It doesn't change our thinking," said Danny Murphy. "Coming here and having to win will create its own performance. We can't sit back."
Liverpool scarcely need Claude Colombo, a referee who doubles as a professor of economic science, to spell out the financial penalties of early departure from the tournament, but the manager would also regret reduced deposits in the bank of experience.
"Our run in the UEFA Cup, two seasons ago, playing big teams like Barcelona and Roma, helped us step up in terms of development," Houllier said fondly. "Michael Owen won the ballon d'or due to that."
Playing Basel is an education in itself. Stephane Henchoz, the injured defender, emerged to deny that he had made contemptuous comments about the opposition, but Liverpool must have an insidious feeling of disbelief that they are in this situation.
Although Basle deal in good passing football, their rivals have tended not to be sufficiently on guard. Now, however, there is no doubt Christian Gross's team will be taken seriously.
Gross slides away from confrontation and is at his most urbane when anyone suggests that an unhappy spell at Tottenham leaves him with unfinished business where England is concerned.
"Football is the most fantastic of games," he said innocently. "I am happy here and I am looking forward. I follow Spurs' results and they are doing well. There is no question of revenge."
Ground-breaking achievement, though, is definitely on the agenda. In 1997, Gross, at Grasshopper, was close to steering a Swiss club into the latter phase of the Champions League. Now the opportunity has come again.
Houllier, exercising his sense of mischief, deemed Basel the favourites, but he may not have been straying far from the truth. Although the club are Swiss champions for the first time in 22 years, they are a substantial institution who can regularly fill the modern St Jakob stadium to its 30,000 capacity.
They were lucky to draw at Anfield, but in sharing the points at home to Valencia they surpassed Liverpool. They have spent the past week in a training camp to prepare. The main difficulty may lie in the fact that they have done slightly too well. Knowing that they need only avoid defeat to dispose of Liverpool, they could succumb to tentativeness.
"It is a test of our mental strength," agreed Gross. "I don't know any coach who likes to go out looking for a draw."
Still, it is Liverpool who embark on the more treacherous quest.
BASEL (possible, 4-4-2): Zuberbuhler; Duruz, Zwyssig, M Yakin, Haas; Esposito, Cantaluppi, Ergic; H Yakin; Giminez, Rossi.
LIVERPOOL (possible, 4-4-2): Dudek; Carragher, Traore, Hyypia, Riise; Gerrard, Diao, Hamann, Murphy; Owen, Heskey.
Referee: C Colombo. ...
