Bridge rubber the ideal game for this pair of high rollers

Emmet Malonelooks at the two men most likely to produce the strike that settles tonight's big game.

THE RECENT rivalry of Chelsea and Liverpool suggests tonight's encounter at Stamford Bridge could be decided in the way of all those street games where the kids get called in for their tea: next goal wins.

And while Dirk Kuyt eclipsed his celebrated Spanish team-mate at Anfield a week ago, it is the 24-year-old Fernando Torres who over the last few days has been talking up his chances of grabbing the glory down in London.

"I've wanted to play against guys like John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho for a long time," he said, "and they did me an honour by giving me a tough time. Now I'm going to try to respond to them by getting a couple of goals against Chelsea.

"Everybody dreams of playing in the Champions League and in the space of a few months I have gone from watching it on TV to having a part in it.

"I have already got plenty of memories. My goal at the San Siro, when we beat Inter Milan 1-0, the 4-0 win over Marseille and my goal in the 4-2 win over Arsenal. Now it's the turn of Chelsea."

It is bold talk but then his confidence is not hard to understand after the first season he has enjoyed in English football. The €31.5 million Liverpool were willing to pay Atletico Madrid for the striker gave a fair idea of Rafael Benitez's expectations but not all the manager's purchases from back home have proven as successful as this one.

Torres goes into this evening's game with 30 goals to his credit for Liverpool in all competitions and 12 in his last 13 appearances. He has already become the first Liverpool player since Robbie Fowler 13 years ago to score 20 in the league in a season and his current tally of 22 is just one short of Ruud van Nistelrooy's record for a foreign player during his first Premier League campaign.

His chief attributes are there for everybody to see - blistering pace, a keen eye for an inch of space, a remarkable awareness of where the goal is and a sometimes stunning ability to finish from short or long range.

Around the six-yard box his movement is a nightmare for defenders, and he has the gift for making good runs that allows a great passer of the ball like Steven Gerrard to instinctively know where he will be.

Back in August he scored his first goal for Liverpool against Chelsea but did not manage another all season against a top-three club in the league. His recent Champions League exploits, however, have underlined his ability to perform against the best sides, those goals away to Marseille and Inter and at home to Arsenal helping the five-time champions to the brink of another final.

If Liverpool go on to be crowed European champions for a sixth time it would be the first major career honour for Torres, of whom big things have been expected since he joined Atletico's ranks at the age of 11.

In contrast, Didier Drogba started to amass winners' medals more quickly after initially struggling to catch the eye of the men who matter in football.

The Chelsea striker spent his teens moving between his home in the Ivory Coast capital, Abidjan, and north-eastern France, where his uncle played football for a living, desperately trying to make ends meet.

Drogba had raw talent but lacked technical know-how, and the physical condition that resulted from poor diet prevented him making more of it.

He endured a succession of badly paid jobs while playing in the lower league until finally earning a professional contract at Le Mans while already in his early 20s. Then, with second-division Guingamp he made his breakthrough, scoring 20 goals in a season, after which he was snapped up by Marseille.

Just one year after having earned €400 a week he was a star, scoring 18 times in 38 appearances for Olympique de Marseille.

Still, Jose Mourinho appeared to be making a leap of faith when he agreed to pay around €30 million for the striker almost four years ago.

The gamble, though, quickly started to look like a good one, Drogba's goals and enormous capacity for physical battle proving key factors in the two league title successes that followed for the Londoners - even if his gamesmanship initially alienated neutrals and continues to infuriate opponents.

Perhaps his greatest game for Chelsea was the 4-1 win at Anfield in October 2005 when he ran the Liverpool defence ragged and dominated the 90 minutes without actually scoring any of the goals himself.

Finding the net is not generally a problem, though, for a player who is good in the air and has a powerful shot and an opportunistic streak. In addition to playing a pivotal role in the Chelsea attack as the side's lone striker, he has a very healthy average of a goal every other game.

This season, his influence has been diminished by repeated problems with a knee injury and a growing sense his dedication to the Chelsea cause was dealt a fatal blow by Mourinho's departure - a belief fuelled more than once by the content of his interviews with French journalists, who like him immensely, believing he has remained grounded as a result of his success having come so late.

Against Manchester United last Saturday, though, he showed renewed evidence of his ability to be one of the side's key players. Aside from setting up the game's first goal for Michael Ballack with a fine cross, he won free kicks, held up play, closed down opponents, came close to scoring and, when required, helped in defence.

It was a far cry from the subdued, rather sullen role he played at Anfield and it was the sort of performance Chelsea need him to produce this evening. With 498 minutes of Champions League played since his last goal in the competition, he might well reckon he is due to bag the one that gets his side to Moscow.

Like Torres, he certainly has the ability to be the match winner.