By Gary Fulcher.

Liverpool begin their Europa League campaign with a trip to France on Thursday evening – 6pm kick off UK time – where FC Girondins de Bordeaux await in Group B, which also consists of FC Sion and Rubin Kazan. There have been just two previous meetings between the two sides with Liverpool winning both matches during the 2006/07 Champions League campaign.

The Reds won the first match in France 1-0 courtesy of a Peter Crouch goal and two weeks later secured a 3-0 win at Anfield with two goals from Luis Garcia and one from Steven Gerrard. Liverpool went on to reach the Champions League final that season, losing the final to AC Milan 1-2.

The rest of this preview is for subscribers only.

[ttt-subscribe-article]