Belief - A powerful weapon

In the build up to the second leg of Liverpool's original Champions League semi final clash with Chelsea in May 2005, Rafa Benitez was virtually harassed by some journalist about Jose Mourinho.

Repeatedly asked to say just how great Mourinho was in the hope that it might prompt a headline of "Benitez praises genius of Jose" the boss stayed cool in his answers until he delivered the killer blow "Yes but tomorrow, he will lose" And so he did. Luis Garcia sent the ball over the line and far far away and the rest, as we know, is history.

Belief got us to Istanbul, belief got us to Athens and we will need that same belief to make it to Moscow.

Benitez's former assistant Pako Ayesteran later said of that original Chelsea tie that he and the coaching team including Benitez had utterly convinced the players that they could not be beaten by Chelsea again following defeat to the Blues in the Carling Cup Final in February of that year. And so it was.

Benitez will no doubt be working off the same principle again this time around.

Our record against Chelsea has been gradually improving if not greatly so in recent seasons. We have been the superior team at Anfield in both our meetings this season with only poor referring in the league and woeful bad luck last Tuesday preventing us from winning both games.

At Stamford Bridge, a weakened side was only seen off by a strong Chelsea when Frank Lampard's shot took a wicked deflection in the Carling Cup in December. And in the league meeting in January, we could well have snatched victory and were, as we've been reminded of in recent days, Fernando Torres-less.

That won't be the case tomorrow. With Torres in the side, as we have seen so often this season, anything is possible.

And undoubtedly we have belief. You need only read the words of Benitez in the build up to this game: "We will score. We will win and we will get to the final," he says confidently.

Strong words. They'll need a strong performance to back them up in West London tomorrow night where a progression to the final would undoubtedly be one of Benitez's finest achievements as manager of this club.