Anzhi Makhachkala Boss Guus Hiddink Eyes Defying Liverpool’s Europa League Favourite Tag

Thursday, 20th September, 2012

Anzhi Makhachkala coach Guus Hiddink believes that his side are perfectly capable of topping their Europa League group, despite English giants Liverpool being considered favourites for first place.

Hiddink takes his Russian side to Italy this evening, with Udinese set to provide the opposition, and Anzhi arrive in blistering form, having scored 16 goals in their last four games.

relatedNewsStory The Dagestan club made Europe sit up and take notice in Europa League qualifying, when simply thrashing Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar 5-0 in Holland to record a 6-0 aggregate victory.

Now Hiddink has conquering the club’s Europa League group on his mind; Young Boys make up the numbers in the group.

And so he is confident of defying the bookmakers’ predictions of Liverpool being dominant.

"I do not know if I should believe the bookmakers", said the former Russia coach.

"We do not have many players with experience of the group stage of a European competition", he conceded however, before adding "I would not say that Anzhi are favourites, but we will try to top the group."

Hiddink did admit though that Liverpool are ranked as favourites.

"Liverpool are absolutely favourites, but in recent years Udinese have also made a good impression."