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Liverpool vs Everton

FA Cup Semi Final Preview

It's quite incredible, when you stop and think about all that has transpired since, that Wembley Stadium was like a second home to Everton in the 1980s. Between four FA Cup Finals, a Milk Cup Final and four Charity Shield appearances, the Blues played under the old Twin Towers on nine different occasions — 10 if you count the short-lived Simod Cup — during that decade as the two Merseyside clubs dominated domestic football.

Indeed, of those 10 games, five were Merseyside derbies and the fact that the 1989 Final was the last time Everton and Liverpool met in a Wembley showpiece underscores just how much has changed since the inception of the Premier League.

The Blues have been back just four times since — twice for the FA Cup Final, once for the Charity Shield and once for the 2009 semi-final against Manchester United — but can now add another visit to the record books with a blast-from-the-past clash with the old enemy in this year's semi. Two local derbies will be contested to see who will meet in the Final in May and there is no doubt that David Moyes is desperate to get back under the Wembley Arch and atone for the disappointment of three years ago against Chelsea.

His Everton side come into what is the biggest all-Mersey game in 23 years on a really impressive run of form. Four wins and a draw since that harsh home defeat by Arsenal have propelled Everton into seventh, a point above Liverpool in the table, and it's fair to say that in terms of results, goalscoring form, the brand of football they've been playing and the health of the squad, Moyes's side could not have prepared much better.

Liverpool, on the other hand, are in the midsts of relegation form with six defeats in their last eight games, though they did manage to steal three points from Ewood Park on Tuesday evening but at the cost of losing another goalkeeper to suspension.

Pepe Reina was already banned from this weekend's semi-final for picking up a red card and Doni joined him in dramatic fashion when he brought down Junior Hoilett against Blackburn and earned a straight red of his own. And with a bit more bottle from the referee, the Reds' third-string 'keeper might also have been sent off for shoving Yakubu to the floor in the six-yard box but escaped with just a yellow card.

With Lucas Leiva and Charlie Adam injured, Kenny Dalglish does not have his strongest side at his disposal and he will, again, be heavily reliant on the match-winning prowess of Steven Gerrard — the architect of Everton's misery in the Anfield derby last month — and the volatile combination of marksmanship and disgusting deception that is Luis Suarez.

Referee Howard Webb will have the task of keeping an eagle out for the Suarez's diving antics while the expected defensive pairing of Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka John Heitinga will be instructed to keep a tight leash on the Uruguayan. Darron Gibson will likely get the role of tracking Gerrard and snuffing out his ability to pull the strings in midfield.

In what is a rarity for Everton, Moyes can call on a virtually fully-fit squad. Only the injured Jack Rodwell, the cup-tied Steven Pienaar and the slew of players out on loan are unavailable to him and the manager can approach this semi-final tie knowing that he has no reason to feel daunted or over-awed by the opposition.

Selection-wise, most Blues are expecting the same team that started the quarter-final replay and that would mean another start for the improving and emerging Magaye Gueye on the left flank. It's unlikely given the somewhat unreliable side of his game that Royston Drenthe will play from the first whistle — if nothing else, Moyes is known to be loyal to players who have earned it and Gueye surely has.

With one of the stingiest defences in the Premier League and an attack that has yielded 12 goals in the last five games, the Blues genuinely have the firepower with which to beat Liverpool and it's not often that Evertonians have been able to say that over the past couple of decades.

And in Nikica Jelavic, Moyes has a top-class striker who has taken no time to find his feet in England's top flight. He was named player of the sixth round for his exploits at Sunderland and has shown that if you get him the ball in front of goal, more often than not he will score.

That will be the main thing for Everton. If they keep the ball on the deck, move it around quickly and play the way they did at the Stadium of Light in the quarter-final replay, then the Final is there's to reach. On their form over the last five games, Moyes's Blues need fear no one.

The nub of it, though, will be not allowing the occasion or the opposition to affect them psychologically. Too often, Everton have lacked the confidence on these big occasions, although that wasn't the case the last time they met Liverpool in the world's oldest knockout competition.

They matched the Reds stride for stride over two games before Dan Gosling won the replay so spectacularly a couple of years ago and now, with greater quality in their ranks, it's time to press home the superiority and edge the form book suggests they have coming into this one.

The traveling faithful will be there in raucous voice and, boy, do they deserve some more Wembley memories and a lomg-awaited trophy. Given the proximity to the anniversary of Hillsborough and the minute's silence that will precede the game, there will be plenty of national sympathy for Liverpool but they already have silverware this season.

When the whistle blows, it's up to Everton to make it our time, our opportunity to step out of our neighbour's shadow. Come. On. You. Blues!

Lyndon Lloyd

» Read more

• Live Wembley Matchday Forum
• Osman: Don't treat cup derby as the Final
• Moyes has total belief in his team

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