YNWA takes a look back at our only four previous meetings with Olympique de Marseille, as we prepare for our final home Champions League group game on Wednesday. We also revisit our previous French visitors in Europe's premier club competition.

Most recently
We came from behind to win 2-1 at the Stade Vélodrome in September, thanks to a Steven Gerrard brace including a twice-taken penalty that took him to 99 goals for the club.

Last season
Marseille became the first French side to win at Anfield, at the tenth attempt, when they won 1-0 in a Champions League group game in October 2007, with Eric Gerets in charge of the visitors for the first time and ex-reds Djibril Cissé and Bolo Zenden both featuring. The reds produced a very lacklustre performance as Mathieu Valbuena grabbed the only goal. "That could be the worst performance of my time here", Benítez said. "It was very bad, a very bad game."

Fortunately, we were more successful in the return game, which was a decisive final game in the group. We ran out comfortable 4-0 winners as Steven Gerrard converted a saved penalty to become our all-time top European scorer, scoring in his seventh consecutive game as we became the first English team to win in the Stade Vélodrome. This was followed by strikes from Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel.

First time against L'OM
Milan Baroš struck our goal as we were held to a 1-1 draw at Anfield in the first leg of our UEFA Cup Fourth round tie in March 2004. Didier Drogba netted the equaliser for the French side. We visited the south of France for the return leg a fortnight later, with Igor Bišcan being sent off after Emile Heskey had given us the lead at the Stade Vélodrome. We lost 2-1 on the night after Drogba had converted the resulting penalty.

Other CL visitors from over the channel
We beat AS Monaco 2-0 in the group stage in September 2004 with strike partners Djibril Cissé and Milan Baroš both on the scoresheet.

On Halloween 2006, Rafael Benítez named an unchanged side for the first time in exactly a century of games as we beat Girondins de Bordeaux 3-0 to secure a place in the knock-out phase with two games remaining, thanks to a Luis García brace and a first reds goal of the season from Steven Gerrard. Fernando Menegazzo was sent off for the visitors, with Istanbul hero Vladimír Šmicer confined to the stands due to injury.

Yossi Benayoun made his reds debut as Andriy Voronin's first reds strike proved to be the only goal of the first leg of our Champions League qualifier in Toulouse in August 2007, who became our hundredth different opponents in European competition. Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva and Argentine winger Sebastián Leto both made their reds bows as we triumphed 4-0 in the Anfield return. Peter Crouch and skipper Sami Hyypiä both netted before Dirk Kuyt added a late brace as we secured our fiftieth home win in Europe's premier competition. Before the match, the Z-Cars theme was played in tribute to the recently-murdered teenager Rhys Jones, whose parents and brother were present on the touchline in their Everton shirts, on a day when the city of Liverpool celebrated its 800th birthday.