Rafa: Pressure's on Blues
30 Apr 2007 - 14:20:29
Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has cranked up the pressure on Jose Mourinho in the build-up to his side's Champions League semi-final second leg clash with Chelsea, by saying that the Blues boss has no choice but to win Europe's premier trophy.
Benitez believes that Mourinho's massive spending spree in the last three years means he needs to win the Champions League to keep billionaire owner Roman Abramovich happy.
Chelsea lost to Liverpool two years ago before being knocked out by Barcelona last term, and Benitez is keen to repeat his side's 2005 success.
Chelsea lead 1-0 from last week's first leg at Stamford Bridge, but Benitez said on the eve of the Anfield return: "Chelsea have spent millions and millions, they need to win trophies.
"If you spend this amount of money it is to win trophies.
"When you play against Chelsea, who have spent more money than anyone else in the world in the last five years, we must be calm and say 'OK, if we can beat them, perfect - but if we can't we'll do our best'.
"They are favourites. If you analyse the last five years and the value of each player then we must be underdogs. But if we play at our best level we can beat them."