Crystal Palace's Alan Pardew: 'It's highly likely Christian Benteke will score against Liverpool'

Former club: Christian Benteke will face Liverpool for the first time since leaving in the summer
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Vaishali Bhardwaj29 October 2016

Alan Pardew believes Christian Benteke is likely to be on the scoresheet when the Crystal Palace striker faces his former side Liverpool on Saturday.

Palace signed Benteke from Liverpool for a club record fee of £27million in August after the striker endured a tough season at Anfield.

He scored 10 goals but found game time hard to come by once Jurgen Klopp was appointed as Brendan Rodgers' successor last year.

Benteke has enjoyed a good start to life at Selhurst Park, however, scoring three league goals in seven appearances for Palace this season, although he recently missed a penalty against West Ham and failed to score in the 3-1 loss at Leicester last weekend.

But when asked whether he thinks Benteke could find the net on Saturday, Palace boss Pardew told BT Sport during a live Facebook interview on Friday: "It's highly likely he'll score [against Liverpool] because he hasn't scored in the last two games.

"His ratio, just going on his stats, will tell you that there is a good chance of him scoring so if you want to place a £2 bet on something, that's not a bad bet!"

Palace lost this same fixture 2-1 last season thanks to a 96th-minute penalty from Benteke, although the Eagles did manage to beat the Reds by the same scoreline at Anfield in November.

Philippe Coutinho was on the scoresheet that day and, after scoring four goals for the Reds this season, Pardew admits the Brazilian is likely to be Liverpool's biggest threat at Selhurst Park.

"The player who caused us the most trouble last year was Coutinho. He has a fantastic technique and a player that - if you take my Crystal Palace out of the equation - is a player I love to watch," he said.

"You can't help but love the way he flows, the way he moves, his technique and he's a player I would love to have at this football club. But he's our opposition tomorrow."

You can follow's today's match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool live on Standard Sport. Click here for more information.

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