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The visit of Besiktas tonight also means the first return of striker Demba Ba to Anfield since scoring for Chelsea last year in a win which damaged the Reds' title hopes.

Ba's goal at Anfield in April arrived when he pounced on a Steven Gerrard mistake to score the first in Chelsea's 2-0 win in the Reds' penultimate home game of the season. He has 13 league goals and is joint-top scorer in Turkish football this season.

"It won't stimulate any bad memories for me," said Rodgers, when asked what facing Ba would mean. "We just see him as a threat that we will pay respect to but nothing more than that."

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Liverpool, of course, have been parachuted into the Europa League after exiting at the group stage of the Champions League.

The Reds picked up just five points but have improved a lot since then, heading into tonight's game against Beskitas on the back of six wins from their last 10 Premier League games, and boss Brendan Rodgers reckons Liverpool could have won the Champions League had they reached the last-16.

"You just never know with the Champions League because sometimes it's not the best teams that win it," he said., external "I felt if we were maybe the team we had (last year) or were further down the road with this team then we'd have had a chance with the Champions League, that's the reality."

Image source, Everton

Will playing on an artificial pitch affect Everton?

Roberto Martinez has been preparing for the Stade de Suisse surface by training for a week on Rugby League side Widnes Vikings' AstroTurf surface, and has also given Harry Redknapp a buzz for some advice. Redknapp was in charge of Tottenham when they played on the pitch five years ago.

"We have done our preparation right," says Martinez. "We have been working on that sort of surface and I feel we are ready. It is not an excuse or a reason for us not to be able to compete in the game."

BBC Radio 5 live

Jonathan Northcroft, Sunday Times football correspondent, on the Wednesday Night Club on 5 live Sport: "Everton are probably suited to European football, but that's a bit of a backhanded compliment really because they have been a bit soft this season in the Premier League. They have been easy to play against, something you don't associate with Everton.

"But Roberto Martinez is very enthusiastic about the Europa League. He loves the concept of it. And there's already talk on Merseyside of another derby, if both Everton and Liverpool and Everton can get through. We'll all be writing more Steven Gerrard pieces.

"That would be a great tie, wouldn't it, an Everton v Liverpool quarter-final?"

Former Everton captain Phil Neville: "It annoys me, you may work for nine months, get into Europe, celebrate and then come back for pre-season and the Europa League has become a noose around the neck.

"We embraced the competition at Everton and that is what you have to do."

Alex W:, external Europa League affects league form if your squad isn't deep or committed enough to compete on multiple fronts al la Newcastle...

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It is not going to be easy for Everton against a side who are strong at home.

They have won their last seven European home games since losing to Liverpool in September 2012, while they have scored 13 goals and conceded just one in their five Europa League matches in Bern this season.

Young Boys's Switzerland international right-back Scott Sutter was born and raised in England, moving to Switzerland in 2002. He apparently supports Tottenham too.

Everton midfielder James McCarthy makes only his second start of 2015 as manager Roberto Martinez looks to nurse him back to full fitness after long-term hamstring trouble. He replaces Mo Besic, while Kevin Mirallas comes in for the cup-tied Aaron Lennon.

BSC Young Boys, second in the Swiss Super League and on a run of eight wins in nine matches, are unchanged from the side who beat Grasshoppers 4-2 last Saturday. France international striker Guillaume Hoarau, who spent four years with Paris St-Germain, scored twice in that win to take his goal total for the season to 11. Centre-back Steve von Bergen played for Switzerland at last summer's World Cup.

BSC Young Boys XI: Mvogo; Hadergjonaj, Vilotic, Von Bergen, Lecjaks; Steffen, Sanogo; Steffen, Kubo, Nuzzolo; Hoarau.

Everton XI: Howard; Coleman, Jagielka, Stones, Oviedo; McCarthy, Barry; Mirallas, Barkley, Naismith; Lukaku.

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What are your thoughts on the Europa League? Does it a damage a season?

Are Everton fans happy with their side taking the Europa League seriously? Or should the Premier League be taking priority? Liverrpool fans, what would you prefer? Top four finish or Europa League success?

Let us know via #bbcfootball,, external text us on 81111 (UK only) and have your say on the BBC Sport Facebook, external and Google+, external pages.

Speaking of Everton's poor league form, that brings me nicely on to a feature you may have seen on our website today.

BBC Sport has studied 10 seasons since the Europa League introduced group stages to find exactly what impact a campaign has on league performance. We crunched every season-on-season position change and analysed each league result which followed a Europa League fixture and the stats make for interesting reading.

There are plenty more stats and information in the feature, definitely worth a read.

Image source, Uefa

Lovely weather in Bern, Switzerland ahead of Young Boys versus Everton.

Is the Europa League a good thing for the Toffees? Roberto Martinez has talked about taking the competition seriously since their very first game and they qualified with ease for the knock-out stage, finishing top of their group.

Has it come at a cost, though? They have won just one of their last 11 games and are just five points above the relegation zone in the Premier League. Imagine, they could feasibly win the tournament and secure Champions League football for next season, but also get relegated to the Championship.

Real Madrid one week, Rotherham the next. Amazing scenes.

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So here are the fixtures in full tonight.

Our main interest is in Young Boys v Everton (18:00 GMT); Liverpool v Beskitas (20:05), Tottenham v Fiorentina (20:05) and Celtic v Inter Milan (20:05), and we'll be providing a dedicated live on Celtic's game from 19:30.

I think we can all agree that Guingamp v Dynamo Kiev is the pick of the bunch up there though...

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Yep, the Europa League is back!

OK, it may not have the grandeur of its bigger brother the Champions League, but this is the knockout stages of the competition and that alone brings with it its own element of excitement.

Gone are the seemingly endless amounts of group-stage games against the likes of Apollon Limassol and Astra Giurgiu and now it is a two-legged shootout as we whittle down the 32 remaining teams.

Add to that the fact that Champions League football is the prize for winning the whole thing this year and I reckon we could be in for some pretty good Europa League action over the next few months. Honestly.

February. The days are getting warmer, the evenings are getting lighter and football fixtures seems to be coming thick and fast. It is also the return of the Europa League.

Three Premier League teams are in the knockout stages - Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton - but with domestic matters heading into the business end of the season, tonight could be the night we discover where each club's priorities lie.

Will it be more European glory?

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A first top-four finish since 2012?

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Or simply Premier League survival?

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