Madrid's Champions League Final A Big Prize For Liverpool FC Goalkeeper Pepe Reina

Pepe Reina was as surprised as anyone at Anfield when he saw the weekend headlines.

The Reds goalkeeper stood accused of writing off Liverpool’s hopes of Premier League glory.

After an interview given in his native tongue prior to the resounding win over Burnley, the Spaniard was quoted as saying the title “is not a realistic objective” this season.

However, it appears that something was clearly lost in translation.

Rather than being down in the dumps, Reina is bullish about what this Liverpool side is capable of achieving over the next eight months.

But the 27-year-old insists it would be foolish to burden his team-mates with any bold predictions.

“What I meant was that it’s unrealistic to be talking about winning trophies in September,” he said.

“I’m certainly not pessimistic. It’s just too soon to speak about anything like that and I prefer to wait.

“It’s impossible to win or lose anything at this time. You can only win things in May.

“What I wanted to say is that we have to go little by little, step by step and think game after game. Let’s not put ourselves under stupid pressure.”

After a difficult opening to the season, which saw defeats at the hands of Spurs and Aston Villa, Reina believes the Reds are finally finding their feet.

Back to back wins over Bolton and Burnley have boosted confidence ahead of tonight’s opening Champions League group clash with Debrecen at Anfield.

“It was a really good performance on Saturday and it was important to win in front of our fans after losing to Villa at home,” Reina said.

“A clean sheet and three points was very positive and now we have to keep working hard.

“With players coming back late in pre-season it was tough at the start of the season and it took time for us to get going.

“Now we have a run of matches without any interruptions it will be easier to prepare for every game.”

Reina has played his part in some memorable European campaigns since he arrived at Anfield from Villarreal in the summer of 2005.

And this season he has added motivation with next May’s final being played in his home city of Madrid.

“The Champions League is a competition all players love playing in and I’m really looking forward to getting started,” he said.

“It’s crucial to win the first game, even more so when we’re playing at Anfield. We’ll go out very motivated because whenever we play in front of our own fans we give our all so that we can reward their support with a win.

“We always go a long way in the Champions League and our objective is to play in the final at the Santiago Bernabeu. It’ll be hard but we’ve already played in two finals in this decade, and we want to finish it by playing in another.”

Debrecen have reached the group stage for the first time in their history. The Hungarian champions are expected to be the whipping boys of Group E, which also includes Lyon and Fiorentina, but Reina is wary of writing them off.

He said: “Debrecen are opponents who merit as much respect as Real Madrid or Barcelona.

“The fact they are in the Champions League speaks for itself – it means they are a good team.

“We’ll know everything there is to know about Debrecen because Rafa Benitez and his staff make sure we have all the information on our opponents so that we know their strengths and weaknesses before every match.

“They will come to defend and we have to be ready for a tough game.

“We’ll go out very focused, our attitude will be very positive and we’ll play with a determination to get the three points.”