Konrad Plautz of Austria will referee our first Champions League game as we travel to France to play Marseille.

This will be the second time he has refereed a game between the two teams in The Champions League having been in the middle of Marseille's 1-0 win at Anfield last season.

The 43-year old toolmaker from the Alpine town of Navis,Austria has been referring in the top flight of Austrian football since 1991 after serving two seasons as a linesman.

In 1996 he was promoted to the FIFA ranks of refereeing and has been in the top 30 European officials list since 2000. Despite such a high ranking status he missed out on all the major international tournaments, however this summer just gone he eventually managed to appear in EURO 2008 were he refereed Spain's 4-1 win over Russia and Switzerland's 2-0 win over Portugal.

For memorable games he picks out Arsenal's Champions League match at Dinamo Kiev. He comments on uefa.com "In 2003, I refereed Dinamo Kyiv-Arsenal match in Kiev, in front of 80,000 spectators, and it was a sensational experience for me. It's important, though, that you focus on the field rather than the crowd on such occasions. And although you might be refereeing the stars, once the game starts, I try to look at the two teams as 'black against white'."

He is a veteran of the Champions League and this will be his ninth season in the competition with 30 games under his belt. Last season he equalled the furthest he has ever been in the competition when he refereed the semi-final 2st leg at Anfield against Chelsea, although he did referee last season's Super Cup between AC Milan and Seville.

This will be his sixth time in charge of the reds. Back in October 2002 Michael Owen grabbed a hat-trick in Spartak Moscow. Three years later goals from Sinama-Pongolle and Luis Garcia saw us beat Real Betis 2-1 in Spain. Our luck changed later that season as Benfica won 1-0 in Portugal. His most recent Liverpool match was our 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the semi-final 1st leg.

His assistants for the game are Bernhard Zauner and Armin Eder, the fourth official will be Oliver Drachta.

Some memorable matches involving Austrian officials and Liverpool.

10th May 1973 (E.Linemayr) - 24 hours after the match was abandoned because of heavy rain, Liverpool defeat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 in the first leg of the UEFA Cup Final at Anfield.

13th September 1978 (E.Linemayr) - Nottingham Forest beat Liverpool 2-0 in the first round of the European Cup at the City Ground.

7th March 1984 (H.Fahnler) - Ian Rush scores the only goal as we beat Benfica in the first leg of the European Cup quarter-final.

15th October 2003 (S.Messner) - Antony le Tallec opens up the scoring in a 3-0 second leg win against Olimpija Ljubljana in the second leg of the UEFA Cup first round.

22nd April 2008 (K.Plautz) - A last minute own goal from John Arne Risse gave Chelsea the away goal in a 1-1 draw.