Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Yossi - We'll Do It For Torres


Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun has set his sights on winning the Europa League for injured striker Fernando Torres.

The Reds are without their star forward for the remainder of the season after he underwent a second knee operation in four months back in homeland Spain.

The setback rules Torres out of the upcoming Europa League semi-final showdown with former club Atletico Madrid.

And Benayoun, speaking ahead of Thursday's first leg, spoke of his desire to win the trophy for his crocked team-mate.

"Fernando is the best striker in the world and with him it is much easier but unfortunately he is injured and cannot play," said the Israeli, who scored the opening goal in Monday night's 3-0 Premier League victory over West Ham.

"We need to give more to try to play for him because he won us a lot of games and played a big part in us getting to the semi-final.

"I wanted him to play against his old club because that would have been a special moment for him.

"Last time we played them he couldn't play. He deserves to play against his old fans but this is football and life.

"We need to try to win the game for him and all the club."

The comfortable Anfield triumph over West Ham raised spirits ahead of a lengthy trip to Madrid.

The Liverpool squad departed for London via train on Tuesday afternoon and, after an overnight stay in Paris, are scheduled to arrive in the Spanish capital 24 hours later.

Benayoun opened the scoring against the Hammers before a rare David Ngog strike and an unfortunate Rob Green own goal sealed the win.

"It is always good to get the win and get the confidence back before a big game on Thursday," said Benayoun.

"We are in a good mood to go to Madrid and try to win.

"We want to win a trophy and we are now very close so we need to do everything to make sure we get a good result to bring back for the second leg.

"It has been a disappointing season so far and we need to finish with a trophy to give everyone a better feeling.

"Winning the Europa League would give us a better feeling but if we don't finish top four we cannot say it is a success - but any trophy you win is great for any club.

"Of course we'd prefer to be in the Champions League and win that but the Europa League is interesting and there are a lot of good teams."

Victory over the Hammers maintained Liverpool's outside chance of catching fourth-placed Tottenham.

But Benayoun admits the five-point gap with only three matches remaining will be difficult to overhaul.

"It is very difficult (to get the top four). We need to be realistic but the only thing we can do is try," he added.

"Mathematically we can still do it so with the points that are left we need to do our best to win the remaining games and get a bit of luck from the other results."

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