YES, they have met before so no need for formal introductions… it was just the once, mind. And a long way from the lights of a Champions League quarter-final. At Spain's equivalent of Bradford City, a Rafael Benitez only three years into his managerial career saw the economical Extremadura side he had just got promoted pummelled 5-1 at home by Guus Hiddink's Real Madrid.

Granted, they were the Real Madrid that had won the 1998 Champions League five months before and they weren't really Hiddink's. He had taken over from Jupp Heynkes a month after that victory over Juventus and would be gone by February 1999 as Real's board showed early ambition for Galactic travel. But in the 11 years it has taken Benitez to catch up with and arguably surpass Hiddink as a knock-out manager they didn't meet again.

It's even longer since Hiddink set foot in Anfield as anything more than an observer. And on two previous visits 13 years ago, we saw both sides of his dramatic Dutch team. The first was fantastic as Patrick Kluivert brilliantly finished off the Charlton era in the Euro 96 play-off, the second farcical as Holland fell to internal feuding and French resilience in a quarter-final shoot-out.

On Hiddink's return there on Wednesday then, which side of the Liverpool-Chelsea series will we see? Will familiarity breed the usual cagey contempt or, for the neutral at least, contentment as Hiddink's high-brow approach adds a new dimension to an old duet? Whatever happens, Wednesday night will see a European Cup record matched. With five pairings in five seasons, only Real Madrid and Bayern Munich between 2000 and 2004 have met so much in such a short space of time. That's the same amount as bloody Saw films. Manchester United drew Bayern Munich four times between 1998 and 2002 and Juventus and Roma three times each either side of the last 13 years, while back in the '60s Real and Inter kept seeing each other and rolling their eyes.

But the difference between those ties and this is how, even taking in last season, Liverpool have lorded it over this draw. They've won two semi-finals and finished top of their group in 2005-06. Which is ironic, because this year marks the first true time where Liverpool are the ascendant team and favourites for more reasons than their mere knock-out record.

And it is that, married with Hiddink's transformation of Chelsea, which suggests this might finally be a tie to savour. One that might at last hold attention with action as much as expectant tension.

The caution that has marked this contest over the past five years has, however, also coloured perception of it. Like so many series the first is frequently the best and, despite the solitary Luis Garcia goal, it's easy to forget just how pressurised Benitez's initial semi-final meeting with Jose Mourinho in 2005 was. A weaker squad did mean though that was a Benitez who looked primarily to containment. Recent results have suggested this Benitez looks to kill games with a blitz as early as possible. It's the Liverpool he always threatened to produce, the high-pressure high-level game of Arrigo Sacchi he has always aimed to emulate. Yes, a very fixed system but one that allows his best players to really force their point home. And there is something very exhilarating and unstoppable about how they drive teams like Aston Villa and Real Madrid into submission in the first 20 minutes.

Do it too often though and it becomes just as dangerous a way to play for the practitioners, as teams figure out to sit back and stay solid early on – or alternatively meet them for conviction. In such a tense tie and with an away goal to keep out, history would indicate Benitez will not be so frenetic. Nevertheless, there is a sense of ambition and expectation at Anfield and such an approach now would indicate Benitez has truly turned a corner.

Battering down Chelsea's blockade would also prove Liverpool's month of March wasn't just a case of form meeting fortuitous fixtures. For all the talk of Manchester United's defence, before yesterday's games Chelsea had conceded one goal less in one game more and that with Ricardo Carvalho largely absent. Hiddink himself has visibly had Chelsea playing much higher up the pitch and, while it hasn't always been seamless, you can make out the blueprint. After United's FA Cup destruction of Fulham and just before their recent collapse, Hiddink exclaimed of Alex Ferguson's style "that's good to see as a passionate man of football. That's how football should be played".

Hiddink's comments on the Liverpool meeting are more open to interpretation. "There's never a boring game between these two powerhouses. I was listening and watching the players' reactions to the draw. When it was confirmed there was no 'Not again'. It was a good reaction. That's positive for us. I love the atmosphere when there are these tight games. The players who can cope with that pressure are the big players, and big players show themselves on those nights."

Given that, other than Ferguson, Benitez and Hiddink are the only managers left in the Champions League to have won it and that the former has the finest record in the competition while the latter remains one of the few international coaches with an unblemished record in getting to knock-out stages regardless of squad, the temptation is to view this game as a chess match. But Hiddink is right to point to the players as more than pawns.

Traditionally, this game is presented as yet another personal battle between Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard but it's a narrow Anglo-centric view to a wide-ranging and intriguing set of individual battles. For Liverpool, there has never been a time when Gerrard and Fernando Torres are on such high form simultaneously while the likes of Albert Riera, Fabio Aurelio and Javier Mascherano are providing able assistance. At Chelsea, Hiddink has revitalised Didier Drogba for his most rampaging form since the 2006-07 season, and even Michael Ballack and Nicolas Anelka are responding in his dynamic 4-4-2. Most of all though, there is the startlingly swift return of Michael Essien. The true candidate to match Gerrard's movement, it's his energy in his proper position, above all, that should galvanise this game. Other than Leo Messi, this season's Champions League is still waiting for a player to step up and take the stage. This tie might yet provide it. Who knows, we might even start wanting them to be drawn together.

mdelaney@tribune.ie

champions league quarter-final first leg

liverpool v chelsea

Wedneday, Anfield, 7.45

Live, RTÉ Two, Sky Sports 2, 7.00