Liverpool's backs to the wall in Budapest

Liverpool FC take on Debreceni VSC in Budapest facing an uphill struggle to escape early elimination from this season's UEFA Champions League.

• The Merseyside team lie third in Group E, five points behind second-placed ACF Fiorentina whom they face at Anfield on Matchday 6. To keep their hopes of progress alive until then, Rafael Benítez's team need two things: a victory against Debrecen and Fiorentina failing to beat Olympique Lyonnais at home.

• The Anfield club have not fallen at this hurdle in five previous campaigns under Benítez, though they were group-stage casualties in 2002/03.

• Liverpool have fought their way out of tight spots before during Benítez's reign, notably in 2007/08. Then, as now, they had four points after their first four games, albeit trailing second-placed Olympique de Marseille by three points rather than the five separating them from Fiorentina.

• Still point-less, Debrecen's hopes of qualification have already evaporated and they will definitely finish bottom of the group unless they beat Liverpool. The Hungarian titleholders are one of only two teams in the competition still to garner a single point – the other is Maccabi Haifa FC.

• The last team to suffer a 100 per cent losing record in the UEFA Champions League group stage was FC Dynamo Kyiv in 2007/08.

Previous meeting
• Liverpool won the teams' first ever encounter at Anfield on Matchday 1, Dirk Kuyt scoring the only goal in added time at the end of the first half.

Match background
• This is the second time Debrecen have welcomed English visitors. They previously lost 3-0 to Manchester United FC in a third qualifying round tie in August 2005, the concluding part of a 6-0 aggregate defeat. Tibor Dombi and Zoltán Kiss were in Debrecen's starting lineup that day.

• Liverpool's two previous visits to the Hungarian capital ended in stalemates. In the 1965/66 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals they held Budapest Honvéd FC 0-0 en route to a 2-0 aggregate success.

• A 0-0 draw with Ferencvárosi TC in the second round of the same competition in 1974/75 proved costly to Liverpool, eliminating them on away goals after a 1-1 first-leg draw at Anfield.

• That Liverpool exit was one of only three that English sides have suffered in 15 two-legged contests against Hungarian opposition.

Team ties
• Läszló Bodnar faced Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League in 2001/02. Bodnar was on the bench for former club Dynamo Kyiv's 1-0 defeat at Anfield in September 2001 and then played the first 56 minutes when Liverpool won 2-1 in Ukraine the following month.

• Ádám Komlósi lined up against Liverpool pair Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard in Hungary's 3-1 friendly defeat by England at Old Trafford in May 2006. Komlósi lasted only nine minutes before succumbing to injury in a match where Gerrard scored the opening goal.

• Liverpool defender Daniel Agger visited the Ferenc Puskás Stadium in September 2008 with the Denmark national team, playing out a goalless draw in FIFA World Cup qualifying against a Hungary side that included Bodnár, Gergely Rudolf and Zoltán Szélesi.

• Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun scored his first international goal at any level for Israel's Under-16 side against Hungary, securing a 1-0 home win for his team on 20 September 1995.