Foottball: Liverpool determined to make history and avoid humiliation;

Foottball: Liverpool determined to make history and avoid humiliation

Paul Ince has promised that Liverpool will go all out for an early goal as they try to avoid European humiliation tonight. They go into their Uefa Cup meeting at home to Racing Strasbourg 3-0 down from the first leg, and to progress in the competition they will have to create club history by pulling back a three-goal European deficit for the first time.

"We know what we have to do, we will give everything we have, then you never know what might happen," the Liverpool captain said. "We need an early goal, of course, and we have to keep it tight for the first period certainly. An early goal for them would finish the tie."

"The longer the game goes on, and the more we have to push forward, the more gaps that will leave for them to exploit. So we have to be careful, but impose ourselves on the game.

"They surprised us by playing three up front in the first leg, we didn't expect that. They did it and they got the early goal, which gave them the lift. I believe after that we played the better football before letting ourselves down again and letting them have a second goal. It was always hard from then on with us chasing the game.

"I suppose if we don't get something early, it will mean throwing everything at them in the second half, throw caution to the wind and go for it."

The Liverpool manager, Roy Evans, emphasised that they would go into the game with a positive attitude.

"There's no point in going to the game if we don't think we can do it," he said. "We have got to win by a big score, that's a mountain, but mountains are there to be climbed."

Evans has no injury problems, which means that Karlheinz Riedle and Patrik Berger will again be in contention, although it is unlikely that Liverpool will start with a different side to the one that drew 1-1 at Bolton, which means that Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen will lead the attack.

- Paul Walker