Rafa Benitez

RAFAEL BENITEZ hailed Fernando Torres after the striker equalled a 46-year-old Anfield scoring record by firing Liverpool to a 1-0 victory over Manchester City yesterday.

Torres, who took his tally to 32 goals for the season with the decisive strike against Sven Goran Eriksson’s men, has shattered all expectations following his arrival from Atletico Madrid last summer.

Before yesterday’s encounter, the £21m forward was already the first Liverpool striker since Robbie Fowler, in the 1995-96 season, to break the 20-goal mark for a League campaign, with the majority of his tally collected at Anfield.

In continuing that trend against City, he also equalled Roger Hunt’s record of scoring in eight consecutive home league games, a feat achieved in the 1961-62 Division Two campaign and his manager said: “It was another great goal from Torres. When you consider he hasn’t taken a penalty this season, it is an amazing number of goals. It is fantastic for him, fantastic for our supporters and for our club now and hopefully in the future.”

The Spain international, who was not expected to figure after being withdrawn during Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final defeat to Chelsea with a hamstring complaint, said of the record: “I read (about it) in the programme – I am very proud. Now I will try to repeat it next season.”

Yesterday’s 1-0 victory was the first time during Benitez’s reign that Liverpool have gone into a final home game of the season with nothing left to play for, the manager having guided the club to three consecutive end-of-season finals.

And despite his individual success this term, Torres admitted that he was disappointed to finish his debut season in English football without a trophy. But he promised Liverpool would be a title threat next campaign.

“We want to win trophies every season,” he said. “Maybe next season – we will have to keep improving.

“For the fans the most important is the league. Maybe next season. We are a strong team and we can win every game.”

If that is to happen, Benitez will have to be allowed to compete with his rivals at the top-end of the transfer market and recruit more players of Torres’ caliber during the close season.

And despite the continuation of the feud between the club’s American owners, the Spanish manager, who refused to comment on a £10m bid for Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry, is confident he will be given the freedom to spend this summer.

He said: “We are working together. We inform them and explain our ideas and I think we can progress.

“It is not perfect but we can keep going and try to sign players we want.”

With fourth place already assured, Benitez took the opportunity to give youngsters Lucas and Emiliano Inusa more first team experience.

Argentinean left-back Insua, in particular, impressed against the visitors and Benitez said: “He did okay. These kind of games are difficult. But against an experienced player like Vassell he did well.

“I asked him not to go forward too much because he had Babel, who is an offensive player, in front of him. But when he got forward he was good. It is one of the things he can do really well. He worked hard and showed quality with the ball.

“I have some players very close to the first team. They will need more experience but at least I know I will be able to use them if needs be. Insua is one of those players.”

Benitez also paid thanks to the club’s supporters who have backed him throughout a difficult season off the field, adding: “We were really disappointed on Wednesday but it was important to win just to say thank you to our supporters. They were amazing this season, for the team and especially for me. It was important that we were able to enjoy some minutes with them at the end of the game.”