Sunday, April 25, 2010

Lee: Goals Key To Final Dream

Sammy Lee believes Liverpool will have to hit the goal trail if they are to see off Atletico Madrid's Europa League challenge.

Diego Forlan's solitary strike has given Los Rojiblancos a 1-0 advantage heading into next Thursday's second-leg and the assistant manager reckons the Reds will need to show a marked improvement in the attacking third if they are to book a final berth.

"It's only 1-0 and that effectively means we are still in it," he told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"Pepe did make a crucial save but that just highlights the importance of him to this football club.

"We are confident. We know it is going to be difficult. We do feel that they are better on the counter attack so that will make it tough, but with our crowd behind us we can score goals.

"We know we will have to score goals. I don't mean just the one either, we'll need goals."

Before the Reds can focus their full attention on Atletico, they face a must-win trip to Burnley on Sunday.

Lee acknowledges that the Clarets are scrapping for survival but insists the Reds' bid for a top four place will ensure they are more than up for the test.

"At the end of the day we are still fighting for what we want," he said. "We've said on many occasions that each game presents its own degree of difficulty and none more so than Burnley.

"It's a very difficult place to go. The pitch won't be great but we'll have to adapt to it."

He added: "We know they have Fletcher who has scored some goals for them this season, but they also have Nugent and we know he can be a threat for us. At the end of the day it's about how we approach the game and we have to make sure we do everything right from our end."

With both Manchester City and Tottenham facing tough fixtures at Arsenal and Manchester United respectively, the game at Turf Moor could potentially offer Rafael Benitez's men a chance to close the gap on fourth spot.

Lee admits Liverpool are relying heavily on others to drop points but is determined to finish the campaign with a flourish.

"We'll try and win the next three and see where we are," he said. "It's important we do our job. What other teams do is out of our hands. We know what we have to do - we just have to make sure we do it."

Lee also revealed that the Reds will continue to assess David Ngog's back injury before deciding whether he can face Burnley.

"He has got a bit of problem," he said. "We will wait to see how he reacts to it in the next 24 hours.

"We only got back to Melwood at 4am on Friday morning and then we had them in training later on. Some of them are in recovery mode, so we'll just have to wait and see. It's too early to assess things but we'll see how it goes over the next 24 hours."

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