Intro:

Brendan Rodgers, Mario Balotelli, Daniel Sturridge, Capital One Cup semi final second leg, Chelsea.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English), Brendan Rodgers:
"We will give Mario every chance. We brought him in here for this season to give him every chance to show consistently that he can play at a team consistently at the top level. It has been a difficult period for him - no doubt - but he is a good boy who does want to fight for his opportunity and for his chance here. I have seen some clippings this morning saying that that is him over with - but that's not the case at all."

SOUNDBITE: (English), Brendan Rodgers:
"Well we will see how he is today. He had his training session with the team yesterday and he trained very, very well. That was as comfortable as he has looked. When he was coming back before he was maybe a little tentative, but I thought yesterday he looked back to normal. We will see how he feels after today, but if he is not ready for tomorrow we won't risk it, that's for sure. He is one that has been out a long time and we need to make sure that he is ready and feels ready which is important to come and contribute."

SOUNDBITE: (English), Brendan Rodgers:
"For us the team is on the up. I think we have seen that over the last number of weeks. Confidence is really high. We certainly won't be underestimating Chelsea because they've had a disappointing result. We know that every element of our game has to be at a high level. But we've got great confidence going into the game, knowing that in particular away from home, our form and resilience is getting better and better and we can get a result."