"We're playing a team who are champions of England, champions of Europe and champions of the world in a fantastic stadium," Hodgson has said ahead of Wednesday night's encounter.
"These are the sort of games everyone wants to play. We struggled at the end of last season and worked our socks off to stay in this division and the reason we did that was for games like this.
"Alex's qualities as a coach are well documented but what makes him special as a manager is his record.
"He took on a job 20 years ago which, even then, was considered one of the most difficult jobs in the country. Since then he's built an empire.
"They were a big club when he went there and now they are an institution around the world. He is a person who has been able to evolve with the times, keep abreast of things and he has a very good eye for a player.
"You could write books on how successful he has been; in fact I'm sure there have been books.
"But it would be nice one day to read a book when he tells you how he has managed to achieve this great success, then the rest of us could read it and try to follow it."