'Goosebumps': Former France international pays tribute to 'legendary' Anfield ahead of Liverpool vs Lille

Yesterday at 06:30 AM

Liverpool are heavy favourites to get another Champions League win on the board when they face Lille at Anfield on Tuesday.

The Reds have been the team to beat in Europe’s premier competition this season, winning six out of six in the new-look League Phase.

That has put Liverpool top of the Champions League table and with one foot firmly into the last-16.

But the job is not quite done yet. And having impressively seen off both Real and Atletico Madrid already this term, Lille will come to Anfield believing they can get a result.

The Ligue 1 side may wish to draw inspiration from a match more than 17 years ago, when fellow French club Marseille came to Merseyside and beat Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool thanks to a Mathieu Valbuena stunner.

And as Lille prepare for their own date at Anfield, Valbuena has looked back on his experience of the stadium with real fondness.

Mathieu Valbuena hails ‘legendary’ Anfield

Unbelievably, though he’s now aged 40, Valbuena is still an active footballer. The 52-cap former France international is plying his trade with Greek top division side Athens Kallithea.

Rewind to October 2007, though, and Valbuena was a spritely 23-year-old making an impression with Marseille.

He certainly stood out against Liverpool, bending a beautiful long-range effort beyond Pepe Reina to win the game in the 77th minute.

And according to Valbuena, the atmosphere from that night at Anfield is something that still sticks in his mind to this day.

READ MORE: Liverpool star Ibrahima Konate reveals worrying injury update ahead of Lille clash

“It’s something legendary and historic, that you keep in your head forever,” the Frenchman says via RMC Sport. “But it’s especially the atmosphere that reigns at Anfield. You do this job to experience emotions like that.”

“You play on a cake [of a pitch] and I don’t think that has changed. ‘You’ll never walk alone’ gives you goosebumps and the desire to give it your all, to be able to have fun because above all it’s a pleasure to play these matches.”

Not everyone as convinced by Anfield

As well as Valbuena’s, RMC also run some quotes from the likes of former Lille player Florent Balmont and current start Thomas Meunier, both of whom hail Anfield and it’s atmosphere.

However, not everyone is quite so impressed. Having featured against Liverpool during the last time Lille visited in 2010, former right-back Frank Beria says he was slightly let-down by the Reds’ stadium.

“The images we saw before going there, it’s on TV and it sanctifies things a lot,” Beria explains.

“When we arrived in the locker room, we were rather surprised because the spaces were smaller than I thought. It’s a stadium that has a history and is still in its original state.”

Going on to claim that the atmosphere ‘didn’t bother’ him and that he found the tunnel to be far too small, Beria seems rather less enthused than Valbuena over Liverpool’s home ground. Unfortunately for Beria, his teammates were perhaps a little more intimidated, as they fell to a heavy 3-0 defeat.