Football - Liverpool FC: Debrecen coach Andras Herczeg believes his side are getting stronger ahead of Liverpool match

Sep 16 2009 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

Football - Liverpool FC: DEBRECEN coach Andras Herczeg insists his club have improved since the last time they faced Champions League opposition in England when they were overpowered by Manchester United.

That was in a third qualifying round match and they lost both legs 3-0, suffering at the hands of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Now they are back in the North West facing Liverpool tonight in their first Champions League group stage match.

But Herczeg, 53, says: “This is a completely different team. We have changed a whole generation of players in four years since we were last in England.

“There will not be anyone from the team which lost to Manchester United involved this time.

“This is a young, improving team who surprised many people by winning the Hungarian title last season.

“They have great potential, and I will be interested to see how they cope with playing one of the best teams in the world.”

Debrecen have won away legs already in qualifiers in Tallinn and Levski Sofia, but know this leg is a somewhat more difficult task for them.

Herczeg, who has been involved with Debrecen for nearly 40 years as player and coach, added: “We do accept that this is one of the biggest challenges in our history.

“But we have already played against teams in the qualifying rounds who are rated higher than us in Europe and we have emerged in the group stages for the first time.

“We have improved stage by stage and now we face the biggest test yet.

“It will be interesting to see how we handle this, how the team copes with the environment of Anfield and very good opponents.

“I can only ask them to concentrate on the match and focus on what they will be asked to do. I believe we can produce a big surprise here.”