Buoyed by Liverpool's 4-0 Champions League demolition of
Real Madrid at Anfield, Rafa Benitez insisted the Reds can force
their way back into the Premier League title race with a win at Old
Trafford on Saturday.
In the build up to Tuesday night's clash with Madrid, Benitez
suggested Liverpool did not receive the respect they deserved for
their European exploits, but after inflicting the heaviest
Champions League defeat in Real's history the plaudits fooded
in.
A 5-0 aggregate win against the nine-time European champions
claimed a place in the quarter-finals and also means the Reds are
brimming with confidence ahead of this weekend's clash with Premier
League leaders Manchester United, who are seven points clear at the
top.
"This is the best way to approach the Manchester United game,"
said Benitez. "When you have an important game coming up and the
players are playing this well and scoring four goals against a team
like Real Madrid, you have to be pleased.
"We play a very good team on Saturday and we have to win. If we
can reduce the gap we will be in the title race but we have to wait
and see what happens at Old Trafford.
"Hopefully we have given Manchester United something to think
about but they have a very good team. At least we will approach the
game with a lot of confidence."
Steven
Gerrard scored twice in his 100th European game for the
club with Fernando Torres
and Andrea
Dossena completing the crushing victory. And Benitez was
able to hit back at the critics who have branded him a defensive
coach, particularly in his Spanish homeland.
He said: "Yes, I know people in Spain think that my teams do not
attack, but look at this result and look at the 119 goals we scored
last season. That says something different.
"We are ranked the number one club in Europe by UEFA over the
last five years and a result like this against a great club like
Real Madrid is very pleasing."
And following Liverpool's victory the Spanish newspapers were
quick to heap praise on Rafa's Reds. A typical reaction came from
Jose Samano in El Pais, who wrote: "Liverpool had
everything that Real lacked: energy, purpose, aplomb, speed, shape
and flair.
"They were facing a team reduced to rag dolls. It was an
exercise in demolition, with an imperious Torres and Gerrard and
(Xabi) Alonso and (Javier) Mascherano running the show."
Pictures of a tearful-looking Iker Casillas contrasted with
shots of his jubilant international colleague Torres, and the
Spanish champions were variously dismissed as "pathetic",
"lamentable" and "provincial".
The English press were equally gushing in praise of Liverpool's
win with The Times declaring it "a result that will
resonate through Europe and go down in the modern history of both
clubs".
The Daily Mail said Liverpool simply "pulverised" Real.
"There is no other word for it," wrote columnist Martin Samuel.
"Fittingly for a team nick-named The Meringues, Real Madrid were
splattered and dispersed over a wide area of Anfield in the manner
of an airy fairy dessert.
"One that has been run over by a steamroller. Then another one
then. Then a herd of rampaging elephants. Driving more
steamrollers." The Independent added: "This was Liverpool
playing like European royalty, delivering a four-goal cuffing to
Real Madrid, their biggest defeat in the Champions League.
"This was European football's most successful club humiliated,
eliminated, eviscerated. A rout."
