Rafael Benítez says Liverpool back on track after victory over Spurs

Posted Thursday, January 21, 2010 by theguardian.com

Rafael Benítez says Liverpool back on track after victory over Spurs
Rafael Benítez makes a point at Anfield as his side collect three.

Rafael Benítez believes Liverpool have shown their rivals for a Champions League place that they will remain in the fight for fourth until the end of the season. Benítez's side lifted the gloom around Anfield last night with a deserved 2-0 defeat of Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool are now a point behind Harry Redknapp's fourth-placed side after two goals from Dirk Kuyt brought Benítez a precious victory in his attempts to keep his side in the Champions League. The Liverpool manager said the race for the final qualifying berth would include Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa but, after another trying period as manager and despite fielding a team weakened by injury at Anfield, he was adamant his team would continue to challenge and improve as the campaign progresses.

"It was important for everyone here because we had to reduce the gap and stay in the race," said Benítez. "I think we can improve in the second half of the season. Normally [in] the last five years we do better in the second half of the league. It is a question of having all the players available and, if not, seeing the players work as hard as they did tonight. Everyone knows Liverpool are a good team and it was just a question of time to start winning games and showing our quality. Other teams are also strong but now they know the race will be with four teams."

The Liverpool manager was full of praise for the work rate and desire shown by his players against Tottenham, and reserved special praise for Kuyt. "Dirk works very hard, he could maybe have scored four goals tonight," he added. "Always his commitment is 100% so we are really pleased for him too. It was important for us to score early. We were playing well but in the first half we were not in control, although we had the better chances. The second half was more clear. After the first goal they had to go forward and left spaces, which was good for us."

Redknapp said that his team had missed "a glorious opportunity" to establish a seven-point lead over an injury-plaguedLiverpool, and criticised Howard Webb's decision to disallow a Jermain Defoe goal at the start of the second half, for offside.

The Tottenham manager said: "I'll probably sit up at home tonight reading the rule book for a couple of hours and see what the rules actually are. The referee nor the linesman seemed to know – they probably phoned a friend. Is he active, is it second phase; there are so many rules now. We have been on a good run so losing one game doesn't mean we are out of it, but this was a great opportunity for us here. I'm disappointed."