Liverpool have six games to save their season

Real Madrid v LiverpoolKick-off: Wed Feb 25, 7.45pm; Santiago Bernabeu, MadridTV: Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports HD1Radio: BBC Radio Five Live "It is the most important period of our season," Benitez laughed in his press conference last week. "Just like it was in December, or before that." The inference is clear: when you're chasing titles, every game is just as important as the last one. Their failure to take advantage against Mark Hughes' side means Liverpool's next six games will define their season. They may even define their future. Sandwiched between two dates with Real Madrid in the Champions League, now Benitez's best chance of winning his first trophy since 2006, is a trip to Middlesbrough and then the visit of Sunderland. Aston Villa travel to Anfield on March 22 for a game that will go a long way to deciding both sides' final league positions, but before that is the date that even Benitez, not prone to hyperbole, has earmarked as Liverpool's last chance saloon – Old Trafford, 12.45pm, March 14. But when Benitez admitted yesterday beating the champions-elect is his side's only way back into the title race, it suggested he has not been paying attention. Liverpool's record against the Big Four is outstanding – three wins and one draw in four games. The Spaniard has finally worked his European magic against his domestic rivals. Instead, the sides that have cost Liverpool their best chance of a title since 1990 are rather more ordinary. Stoke, West Ham, Fulham, Hull, Manchester City. Five home draws, 10 simple points dropped. Even if Liverpool do, somehow, beat a United side churning out result after result in 19 days' time, it will be wasted if they do not overcome Middlesbrough and Sunderland. If they do so, and take that form into the rest of the campaign, they will certainly finish at least a creditable second. Although the raised expectations of November and December will cast a shadow of failure on that achievement, it would be more than most fans would have expected at the start of the campaign. If more points are dropped, both Villa and, more likely, a rejuvenated Chelsea could catch them. United would be out of reach, perhaps a dozen points ahead, an 18th league title to, once and for all, end Anfield's superiority complex sewn up with games to spare. The first scenario, swatting aside the lesser sides and keeping a semblance of pressure on United, would make this a season of great progress. Benitez's contract negotiations would surely be resolved to his taste. The latter would make it another campaign of inertia. The doubts over Benitez's ability to take Liverpool to the top would grow. The Spaniard, his list of demands ever-growing for his new deal, would be playing a very dangerous game indeed.

Source: Telegraph