Six Liverpool players will be hoping to take a giant step towards the 2006 World Cup tonight as their respective countries compete in the first leg of the play-offs that will determine the final qualifiers for the tournament.
A quartet of Reds – Fernando Morientes, Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina – are in the Spain squad that play Slovakia in Madrid, John Arne Riise's Norway host Czech Republic in Oslo and Harry Kewell is in South America where Australia face Uruguay.

Elsewhere, already qualified France have Djibril Cisse in their squad for the friendly against hosts Germany in Paris, while Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch are part of the England squad that is also in friendly action against Argentina in Geneva.