Former friends meet again in Madrid

Liverpool FC striker Fernando Torres might have been denied an emotional reunion when his club return to his old stomping ground of the Vicente Calderón to take on the team with whom he made his name, Club Atlético de Madrid, but there are other players with particular reason to impress on Matchday 3.

• A boyhood supporter of 'Atleti', Torres joined the club's youth ranks in 1995 and, six years later – with 176 goals in 148 games under his belt – he made his senior debut aged 17 in a second division game at CD Leganés. He went on to play 243 games in all competitions for the Rojiblancos scoring 102 times before joining Liverpool in July 2007.

• The return of 'El Niño', hero of Spain's UEFA EURO 2008™ triumph, would have dominated the headlines but a hamstring injury picked up on international duty denied him a return to Madrid just over a year on from his move to Anfield. Torres was not the only reunion on offer in this meeting of Group D's top two teams – Atlético, after all, feature a pair of Liverpool old boys in their ranks in Luis García and Florent Sinama Pongolle.

• García left Liverpool for Atlético in 2007 after three seasons in which he made 77 league appearances, scoring 18 goals. His most significant strike in a red shirt, however, came in the UEFA Champions League where he netted the only goal of the 2004/05 semi-final against Chelsea FC.

• Sinama Pongolle also made a telling contribution to Liverpool's triumphant 2004/05 campaign, scoring the first of three second-half goals which rescued them from elimination against Olympiacos CFP in December 2004.

• The French forward struggled to establish himself having joined Liverpool as a teenager, but has blossomed in Spain and moved to Atlético this summer after 22 league goals in two seasons at RC Recreativo de Huelva.

• Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina is another player for whom this encounter holds a special resonance – his father, Miguel, was the custodian of the Atlético side that reached the European Champion Clubs' Cup final in 1974.

• These strands form an emotive backdrop to a contest which should go some way to deciding who finishes top of the section, with both sides strongly placed on six points apiece from their opening two games.

• Atlético have made a fine start to their first campaign in Europe's élite club competition since 1996/97. Javier Aguirre's side won 3-0 at PSV Eindhoven on Matchday 1, Sergio Agüero (9, 36) and Maniche (54) the scorers and then beat Olympique de Marseille 2-1 at the Vicente Calderón, Agüero (4) and Raúl García (22) scoring either side of a Mamadou Niang strike (16).

• Liverpool have an almost identical record from their two opening matches and sit below Atlético for the mere fact of having conceded one goal more.

• The Anfield side opened with a 2-1 victory at Marseille, responding to Lorik Cana's 23rd-minute goal with two Steven Gerrard efforts (26, 32 pen). They then recorded a 3-1 home success against PSV with Dirk Kuyt (4), Robbie Keane (34) and Gerrard (76) again finding the net, before Danny Koevermans' belated reply (78) for the visitors.

• Atlético can take heart from the fact they are unbeaten in six previous home meetings with English opposition, four of which ended in victory.

• They had nothing to celebrate after drawing 0-0 at home to Bolton Wanderers FC last season, however, that stalemate consigning them to a 1-0 aggregate defeat in the UEFA Cup Round of 32.

• The English side whom Atlético have faced the most are Leicester City FC, their opponents in the 1961/62 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round (agg: 3-1) and again in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup first round (agg: 4-1).

• Atlético have an impressive home record in the European Cup, having recorded 17 wins in 23 matches, with three draws and three losses.

• In eleven previous trips to Spain, Liverpool have won six times and lost just twice. They defeated FC Barcelona 2-1 on their most recent visit, Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise scoring to overturn an early Deco goal and set up an eventual away goals victory in the 2006/07 first knockout round.

• Liverpool's squad ought to feel at home on Spanish soil given their manager Rafael Benítez and five players – Xabi Alonso, Álvaro Arbeloa, Reina, Albert Riera and Torres – are all Spaniards.

• Benítez knows what it takes to win at the Vicente Calderón, having collected victories there on two of his four previous visits. His first match there with a top-flight Spanish club was an experience to forget, his CF Extremadura side losing 5-0 in 1998/99. But he won there while in charge of CD Tenerife in a second division game in 2000/01, and with Valencia CF recorded a 1-1 draw in 2002/03 and 3-0 victory in 2003/04.

• Benítez and his Atlético counterpart Aguirre are both former managers of Pamplona-based club CA Osasuna.

• Aguirre and Benítez faced one another four times in Spanish Liga matches when in charge of Osasuna and Valencia respectively and they recorded two victories apiece. In 2002/03 they traded 1-0 home wins while the next year, Valencia defeated Osasuna 1-0 in Pamplona before Aguirre gained revenge with an identical triumph at the Mestalla thanks to an own goal by Mauricio Pellegrino, now first-team coach at Liverpool.

• Atlético forward Diego Forlán scored both goals for former club Manchester United FC in a 2-1 Premier League win at Liverpool in December 2002.

• Atlético's Portugal winger Simão has happy memories of facing English opposition for club and country. He scored for SL Benfica in a 2-0 win at Liverpool in the first knockout round in 2005/06, having earlier that season struck against Manchester United FC in the group stage. Simão also came off the bench to convert spot-kicks in Portugal's shoot-out triumphs against England at UEFA EURO 2004™ and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

• The match will be played at the Vicente Calderón following a decision by UEFA last week, amid appeal proceedings relating to the Matchday 2 fixture between Atlético and Marseille on 1 October.

• The other Group D fixture on Matchday 3 pits PSV against Marseille in Eindhoven.