Rafael Benitez remains confident

LIVERPOOL manager Rafael Benitez insisted that his team will still qualify for next season’s Champions League despite last night’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham United.

The loss, inflicted by a 93rd-minute penalty by Mark Noble after Jamie Carragher had brought down Freddie Ljungberg, sent Liverpool slipping down to seventh in the Premier League table.

Although they are now 17 points adrift of the top two of Manchester United and Arsenal and 13 points below third-placed Chelsea, Benitez’s side will be slightly relieved to be just a single point worse off on their rivals for the final Champions League spot after neighbours Everton, currently in fourth, Aston Villa and Manchester City all drew this week.

However, Benitez, whose side have not won in the Premier League since their last-gasp success at bottom club Derby County on Boxing Day, remained defiant about his team’s chances despite being unusually monosyllabic in his answers.

Asked whether his struggling side could haul themselves back into the title race and still realistically challenge for the Premier League’s top spot this season, Benitez said: “I’m thinking just about the next game and getting the three points.

“I think we need to think about Sunderland, that is more realistic.”

The Spaniard is adamant about Liverpool’s European hopes although he did not specify whether qualification would come through finishing fourth or winning the Champions League.

When asked whether his side would qualify for Europe next season, Benitez simply answered: “Yes.”

On being pressed on whether this would be in the UEFA Cup or the Champions League, he replied: “Champions League.”

Benitez added: “I am confident that we will qualify for the Champions League because we will improve.

“Why? Because we can improve.”

Last night’s loss followed four consecutive draws in the Premier League but Benitez once more insisted that his team should have won the game.

He said: “Do you think that we deserved to lose today?

“I think that we deserved to win.”

The Spaniard claims that he is happy with how his team are playing and feels the current results are not reflecting their performances which he feels are good.

He said: “I think everything (with the owners) is behind us and we will start thinking about winning games – that is the idea.

“I think that managers being judged by results depends on the journalist.

“If you analyse the game you can talk about that and if you analyse the result you can talk about the result.”

When queried on whether the club’s US owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks would analyse the result rather than the performance, Benitez said: “I don’t know if they have a TV.”

He does however feel that he will be given the opportunity to turn things around and when asked if the club’s hierarchy would given him time, responded: “Yes.”

Benitez believed that Liverpool should have been given the chance to go ahead with a penalty of their own before Carragher fouled Ljungberg for Noble’s late winner as he spotted a handball by Lucas Neill.

He said: “Penalty? Which one? The handball or the last one? Both were penalties.”

The Spaniard refused to blame his players for the defeat and remains focused on putting things right in Saturday evening’s encounter with Sunderland which now takes on great significance.

He said: “I think we were doing everything for winning today, we made a mistake, we concede a goal on 93 minutes – sometimes football is like this.

“I think that we created chances, we had some good chances but we didn’t take our chances and sometimes their keeper didn’t have to make saves because when you get yourself into a good position you must hit the target.”

Benitez added: “With my experience in football you can draw games or lose games or you can win games and try to start winning.

“I am a manager, I must think how to improve, how to take chances and how to win games.”

With players returning from injury, Curbishley’s men are also handily placed for a push for European places.

“We’ve got to win our home games and keep the run going,” he added. “We’ve lost three games in 16, and those were to Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton.

“We’ve had to use everything we’ve got. We’ve had players playing out of position, and we’ve had to change players during games, but we’ve shown great character.

“The fans should be pleased with the attitude.”