Hyypia has faith in Dudek

Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia is backing goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek to recover from his latest goalkeeping blunder and play his part in a League Cup final victory over Chelsea today.

Dudek was at fault for Bayer Leverkusen's late goal in the Champions League on Tuesday night, which means Liverpool will take only a 3-1 lead to Germany for the second-leg of their tie.

The Pole has recovered from such set-backs before and in his last League Cup final appearance won the man-of-the-match for his performance in a 2-0 win over Manchester United two years ago.

"We all make mistakes. For the goalkeeper if he makes a mistake there is no-one to cover and usually the ball ends up in the net," Hyypia told reporters.

"I don't think anyone in the team or in the club blames Jerzy for the goal against Leverkusen and we have to help him to get his confidence back if he has lost it.

"He is still a good goalkeeper. It doesn't happen that you turn into a bad goalkeeper in one situation."

Hyypia was Liverpool captain for that success over United and he also lifted both the League Cup and FA Cup at the Millennium Stadium in 2001 prior to Gerard Houllier's replacement as manager by Rafael Benitez last summer.

"The memories are good from there and we have to keep it that way," added the Finland international.

"I think they are favourites for the game, but we have seen that they are not unbeatable.

"We have a new manager, and a new staff and new bunch of players.

"A few of them have not been to the Millennium Stadium, which will be a good experience for them.

"Hopefully, we can give that to the manager as well and he can win his first trophy."