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Liverpool have failed either to win or score a goal at Stamford Bridge in eight attempts since Rafael Benitez took over as manager, but defender Jamie Cattagher is convinced that El Nino is capable of breaking that dismal sequence.

"I'm sure the manager will set us up like he always does in Europe and will look to make us hard to beat," said Carragher on Liverpool's official website.

"We know we need to get a goal but we also need to get a goal because there's no point in doing well at one end of the pitch if we don't do well at the other.

"We won't be going gung-ho and we won't do anything daft or naive.

"The thing is, if Chelsea do get a goal it won't make that much difference because we will still need to score.

"A lot of people are talking about the fact that we haven't scored at Stamford Bridge for a few years but, as Stevie [Gerrard] said after the first leg, we've never been there with Fernando Torres.

"He has been the stand-out striker in world football this season and he is capable of scoring against anyone at any time."

Carragher and Gerrard - and Chelsea captain John Terry - will be hoping to avoid a yellow card at the Bridge tonight, because collecting one would rule them out of next month's Moscow final against Manchester United.

However Carragher insists it won;t affect his approach to the game.

"It's not something that really worries me," he said. "If it happens, it happens.

"It is all about not doing anything stupid because the worst thing would be if you picked up a needless yellow card for something daft like kicking the ball away or going through the back of someone.

"I was in a similar situation in 2005 when I picked up a couple of bookings in the group stages and had them hanging over me from that point onwards.

"So I know what it's all about and I'll be playing my normal game tonight. You can't do anything else."

Carragher told the club's website that he is determined to make it a hat-trick of Champions League semi-final triumphs against Chelsea- and to ensure he and his team-mates don't experience the double misery suffered by the Chelsea players at Anfield in 2005 and 2007.

"That is one of the big things for me," said the Liverpudlian.

"Whenever I think back to those nights, I remember the celebrations when we went through and how great we all felt because it is obviously really special to reach a European Cup final.

"But I also remember the Chelsea players being really gutted and I don't want to be feeling like that after tonight.

"It's the same for all of the lads, we don't want to have to go through what they have been through.

"They were devastated and I know it will be exactly the same thing for whichever side doesn't get through tonight – we just have to make sure it's not us."

Reflecting on he first leg and looking ahead to the challenge facing Liverpool in West London tonight, Carragher said: "I'm not going to try and pretend that the goal they got at Anfield wasn't a blow because it was.

"Until that happened it looked like we were going to get a 1-0 win at the very least and that would have been a really good result because it would have meant they hadn't managed to get an away goal.

"But they ended up getting one and that changes things slightly because it means we have to go to Stamford Bridge and score.

"We are confident of doing that though. We are playing well and winning games so confidence is high at the moment.

"Another big thing for us is the fact that we have done so well in Europe in the last three or four years.

"We won the Champions League in 2005, got to the final last year and now we are in the semi-finals again.

"When you have a record like that you are always going to be confident because you have shown that you can win the biggest games and the experience of having done that is a big help.

"But it's also a big help when you take into account Liverpool's record in Europe in the years gone by.

"This club has only ever lost one European Cup semi-final, and since then we have won seven, so that kind of record is only ever going to be good for everyone's confidence.

"It does give you belief, there's no question about that. But when it comes down to it, it is all about what we do on the pitch and that means going to Chelsea and getting a result that's good enough to take us to another final."

He continued: "If you look at Chelsea's home record over the last few years they have done fantastically well and no-one has beaten them at Stamford Bridge for ages.

"That means that if you go there and get a draw it's a good result.

"In the past we've been delighted with a 0-0 down there in the Champions League but we know that scoreline won't be good enough tonight. It's a totally different scenario but we know what we have got to do and we believe that we can do it.

"When people talk about teams being favourites it can sometimes give a false impression because it's not often that the players involved feel that way.

"In the last round we went to Arsenal and got exactly the same result that Chelsea got at Anfield last week but none of us were thinking the job was done or that we had done all the hard work.

"We knew that there would still be a lot of football to be played in the home leg and that's the way it turned out, especially after Arsenal took the lead with an away goal of their own, and I'm sure no one at Chelsea is thinking they're already in the final.

"I really hope it's us celebrating at the final whistle because I don't want to be on the receiving end," he added.

"There can't be many better feelings in football than winning a European Cup semi-final and I'm sure there can't be many worse ones than losing one."


Mark Hinton, Goal.com