The Anfield club's chief executive Rick Parry, when being interviewed shortly after Friday's draw, could not have been more downbeat if he had tried.

Of course, both Rafael Benitez and Arsene Wenger have since tried to put a positive spin on being paired with a Premier League rival, but there can be no doubting that Parry's reaction will have been shared by not only the players and staff at each club but also the majority of fans.

There is, however, a plus side to having two English clubs paired together in the quarter-finals – if the tie does go to penalties then at least one of our teams will be celebrating come the end of the shoot-out. And that is a rarity in itself.

English football has, and let's not beat about the bush here, a frankly disgraceful record in penalty shoot-outs.

At international level, the Three Lions have won just once – in the Euro '96 semi-finals against Spain – in six attempts, a record that becomes even more embarrassing when compared to such footballing giants as Rwanda, Singapore and Ethiopia.

In fact, only Holland (no wins from seven) and Madagascar (none in six) have fared worse in shootouts than England.

Our record in club football may be marginally better, English clubs having progressed at the expense of foreign opposition nine times in 21 attempts, but it is still nothing to shout about.

It is not as though we are getting better either, as both Everton and Tottenham Hotspur – in being knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Fiorentina and PSV Eindhoven respectively – proved last week.

Those two knockouts mean that in the last nine seasons, just two English clubs have won a shootout and one of those was when Liverpool beat Chelsea 4-1 in last season's Champions League semi-final.

The only other triumph came in the 2005 final when Liverpool completed one of the most remarkable comebacks of all time by edging out AC Milan in Istanbul by three spotkicks to two.

These apart, however, it has been a miserable run with Partizan Belgrade knocking out Newcastle United in the Champions League qualifiers in 2003, Ipswich Town losing to Slovan Liberec in the UEFA Cup the season before and Arsenal's UEFA Cup final defeat to Galatasaray.

It is a ridiculously poor record and one that has to improve if the current boasts about the Premier League being the "best in the world" are not to sound rather hollow.