Glen Johnson is set to make his 100th appearance for Liverpool in Gomel tonight. Here are the rest of the facts and figures from club statto Ged Rea.
This will be Liverpool’s 39th season of European football and their 16th campaign in this competition in its three guises.
The Reds are looking to become the first team ever to lift the trophy four times. Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Valencia have also won it on three occasions.
Liverpool were the last English winners of the competitions – beating Alaves in 2-1. The 5-4 victory is the only European final to be decided by sudden death golden goal.
FC Gomel will be their 114th different European opponent, while they are meeting a side from Belarus for the first time.
This will be the club’s third earliest start to a European campaign. Only 2005-06 (July 13) and 2010-11 (July 29) saw them begin a quest for European glory earlier.
The Reds last foray into Europe two seasons ago saw them lose 1-0 on aggregate to Sporting Braga in the last 16.
In that tie Jamie Carragher broke Emlyn Hughes’ club record by playing in his 46th game in the competition.
Jamie’s next game will see him become only the second Liverpool player (after Ian Callaghan, 857) to play 700 times for the club.
This will be his 140th European game for Liverpool.
No team has scored more than one goal in a European game against Liverpool in the last 17 matches since Benfica scored twice in April 2010.
The Reds have not won away in the last five away European games since recording a 2-1 win at Trabzonspor in August 2010.
In that time they have drawn four and lost once (in Braga), scoring only once through Milan Jovanovic in a 1-1 draw against Steaua in Bucharest.
The Reds have conceded just five goals in their last 14 European games home and away.
Of their last nine European games, the Reds have won just two – home games against Napoli and Sparta Prague.
However, they have lost just one of the last 15 – the 1-0 defeat in Braga.
Steven Gerrard was the last Liverpool player to score a European hat-trick, doing so as a substitute against Napoli in November 2010.
He is two goals away from equalling Michael Owen’s club record of 12 goals in the competition.
The Reds captain with 38 holds the record of most goals in Euope by a British player for an English club – seven more than Wayne Rooney while he is only four goals behind Thierry Henry’s record of 42 goals for a single English club.
Brendan Rodgers will become the 10th permanent Liverpool manager to take charge of the club in Europe. He will be the club’s second youngest manager in Europe after Graeme Souness – Rodgers is 39, a year older then Souness was.
Only Gerard Houllier of all the Reds managers has lost his first game in Europe (Celta Vigo in 1998) though he did win his first one in joint charge with Roy Evans.
Everyone else apart from Kenny Dalglish in 2011 won their first European game as Reds boss.
If he appears Raheem Sterling will become Liverpool’s second youngest player in Europe aged 17 years 238 days (23 days older than Phil Charnock who made his debut in September 1992).
Should Sterling score he would break Michael Owen’s record by 38 days and become the club’s youngest ever scorer in European football.
Only 11 players have been sent off in Liverpool’s 328-game European history with the last being Ryan Babel at Benfica in April 2010.
The last Liverpool player to score an away European hat-trick was Michael Owen in Moscow against Spartak in October 2002.
This competition last season was won by Atletico Madrid who beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in the final in Bucharest.
Gomel beat Vikingur of the Faroe Islands 10-0 on aggregate in the first Qualifying Round winning 6-0 away and 4-0 at home. All the goals in the tie were scored in the second half.
They defeated Renova of Macedonia 2-1 on aggregate to book a tie against the Reds.
Gomel finished third in the league last season.
They have won the league title once – in 2003 and have twice lifted the Cup – in 2002 and 2011.
They were in this competition last season losing in the third qualifying round to Bursaspor – beaten 5-2 on aggregate.
This is their fifth season in the UEFA Cup-Europa League and they have reached the First Round proper once (in 2002-03 losing 8-1 to Schalke 04).
They played in the qualifying round of the Champions League in 2004-05 losing to KF Tirana 2-1 on aggregate after winning the first leg away from home.
Vyacheslav Hleb is the younger brother of former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb.
Liverpool goalscorers in Europe (Reds career): Gerrard 38, Lucas 3, Agger 2, Bellamy 2, Aquilani 1, Carragher 1, Cole 1.
Gomel scorers in Europe this season: Demidovich 3, Kashevsi 2, Hleb 2, Aleksievich 1, Levitski 1, Nowak 1, Timashenko 1, Voronkov 1.
