Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Rafa Fires Euro Warning

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez says his side's record-breaking 8-0 annihilation of Besiktas will have the rest of Europe worried.

Benitez's side have been strangely struggling in the UEFA Champions League and were under pressure at Anfield with three wins needed from three games to sneak into the last 16.

Some of that pressure was eased as they ripped Besiktas apart and secured a Champions League record victory in front of a thrilled Anfield crowd.

After such a poor start, Liverpool still need to beat Porto at Anfield and Marseille away to get through, but Benitez says their 8-0 victory will serve as a warning to the whole competition.

"Porto now have to come to Anfield in the next match and they will be worried by this," said Benitez.

"The rest of Europe will also be aware of what we have done

"But in the end we still have to win those last two games, regardless of how many goals we scored this time."

Yossi Benayoun grabbed a hat-trick, while Peter Crouch scored twice on a rare start, Ryan Babel hit two from the bench and Steven Gerrard got his name on the scoresheet.

Benitez says the early goal helped, while the main difference to previous games was his strikers taking their chances.

"We have been creating a lot of chances in previous games, but not scoring them," added the Spaniard.

"Today we scored early and the game opened up. Besiktas also had to win to keep their chances of qualifying going so they had to come out and try to attack and that gave our forwards space to use.

"It made our movement easier, the space was there and our strikers were on very good form.

"But we still must win the next two and then wait to see if it is enough. But we have confidence that we can beat Porto next, and our supporters will also have confidence in us too.

"When you create chances, score hat-tricks and play that well, it gives all the front players - Yossi, Ryan and Peter - plenty of confidence that they can attack and be successful.

"If you score then you have confidence, that is the difference from the way we have played recently.

"But this was an all-round performance by the whole team. Voronin did not score but he was hugely influential in what went on, his play was unselfish and effective.

"He did a tremendous job, and the defence kept a clean sheet so there was very little for me to complain about, just a few minor things."

Besiktas coach Ertugrul Saglam made just a short statment to express his disappointment after the match - and to apologise to the club's fans.

"It was a very bad night for our team, and fans," said Saglam.

"The result was very upsetting for us and I would like to say sorry to all our fans.

"It is very difficult to accept this result, but life does go on and we have to work much harder now to improve in the future. I can promise our fans we will do that."

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