Europa League Quarter Finals, Second Leg: April 8, 2010

Liverpool vs Benfica

Fernando Torres has been declared fit to play in the second leg against Benfica which is fantastic news for the Merseysiders, who are a prime example of a squad that is over reliant on one man. Liverpool have shown that their squad is seriously lacking in depth: without Torres and Gerrard the team collapses.

Torres was substituted and seen with an ice pack on his knee in Liverpool’s match at St. Andrews last weekend. Although Torres is safe to play Benitez’s side will have to do without Babel, Rodriguez and Insua.

The Liverpool side have been looking frustrated and unmotivated lately and several players have expressed concern about the future of the squad. Although most of Liverpool’s poor performances have come on the road, but their moral as of late might contribute to yet another poor performance.

Benfica are going into the match with a 2-1 lead which could be enough to swing things their way on aggregate.

Benfica are a side which could potentially tear the disheartened Liverpool side to sheds if the home side doesn't perform better on Thursday. Although Liverpool’s performances at Anfield have been reasonable, it would seem that Benfica certainly have the advantage and the only threat will come from Torres.

Wolfsburg vs Fulham

Fulham are still performing outstandingly in Europa and they are taking a narrow victory to Wolfsburg which could be enough to swing the match in their favour. The downside for Fulham is that their away form this season hasn’t been all that great on the whole. Wolfsburg are on pretty good form at home and have won five from their last six home matches in all competitions.

Zamora is the man to watch and it seems more than likely that he’ll play a key part in Fulham’s attack as he did in the first leg of this match up. Although Fulham came from behind to beat Wigan 2-1 this weekend it was a shaky performance. As long as the Cottager’s don’t play like that they should have no problem brushing past Wolfsburg.

Wolfsburg are still putting in shoddy performances and don’t really look like a side who should be in the semi finals. Their recent performances domestically have been shockingly bad. 

Xavier @ livescoredaily.com - livescore