Benitez savours Reds rout
07 Nov 2007 - 07:47:40
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez expects the rest of Europe to sit up and take notice of his side after they romped to a record 8-0 Champions League victory over Besiktas.
The Reds ran riot at Anfield, with Yossi Benayoun netting a hat-trick and both Peter Crouch and Ryan Babel scoring twice to keep alive Liverpool's hopes of reaching the knockout stages.
Benitez said afterwards: "Obviously I want to win trophies, but it is good to be in the record books as well. It is something that people will take notice of.
"Porto now have to come to Anfield in the next match and they will be worried by this. 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.
"We have been creating a lot of chances in previous games, but not scoring them. Here 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.
"If you score then you have confidence - that is the difference from the way we have played recently."