Five time European Cup champions Liverpool take on two time champions Benfica in a high profile quarterfinal tie in the Europa League. The first-leg between the two giants of European football will take place at the Stadium of Light on Thursday night, kick-off at 20:05 hours (BST).

Since entering the Europa League, Liverpool have seen off Unirea and Lille. The Reds cruised past the Romanians 4-1 on aggregate, but in the next round they were forced to turn around a 1-0 defeat from the first-leg away to the French outfit. At Anfield the Merseysiders stamped their quality on the match eventually claiming a 3-0 win with two goals from Fernando Torres in the 49th and 89th minute.

The Spain hitman looked ahead to the tie in a chat with fans on his website. “First we have to beat Benfica, a team with plenty of tradition. It’s going to be a very tough tie as they have a great team, with great players- players who are well known in Spain like Saviola, Aimar, Di María, Cardozo or Javi García. They are also a side who play good football and they have knocked-out Hertha Berlín and Olympique Marseille.”

The Spain striker has hit 7 goals in his last 4 games, including three doubles. And Liverpool will be calling on the goals of their top striker if they want to beat the defending Portuguese league champions who qualified for the last eight after defeating Olympique Marseille 3-2 on aggregate.

Benfica have only lost one match in the Europa League this season and during the group stages Benfica thrashed Livepool’s neighbours Everton. The Eagles destroyed the Blues 5-0 in Portugal, also beating them 2-0 at Goodison Park.

The current Portuguese league leaders have won the last three meetings between the two clubs. However Liverpool have beaten Benfica at this stage of a knock-out tournament on two occasions in the past. In both 1978 and 1984 the Reds eased past the Eagles en route to winning the European Champions Clubs’ Cup.

The Portuguese side will be looking to their top scorer in Europe, the Uruguayan Cardozo (6 goals in the Europa League) as they aim to take a positive result to Anfield in a weeks time on April 8th. As for the Reds, they will be looking to snatch an away goal and bring back a clean-sheet ahead of the return-leg of the quarterfinals of the Europa League.

Elsewhere Valencia face Atletico Madrid at Mestalla. Liverpool will no doubt have one eye on that tie as should the Reds qualify for the semis, they would face the winners of the all-Spanish quarterfinals.