Rafa Benitez

RAFAEL BENITEZ refused to label his side as favourites for the Champions League semi-finals following last night’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal.

Liverpool manager saw his team take the ascendancy in their quarter-final meeting by coming away from the Emirates Stadium with a 1-1 draw.

Dirk Kuyt scored the away goal that could prove crucial for Tuesday’s second leg at Anfield, shortly after Emmanuel Adebayor gave the Gunners the lead.

In their run to last season’s final, Liverpool closed out second legs at home against Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven, plus in the semi-final with Chelsea when they didn’t have an away goal to fall back on.

But even with the odds now heavily stacked in favour of Benitez leading Liverpool to a third last-four spot in his four seasons in charge, the Spaniard is remaining wary of Arsenal’s threat.

He said: “I don’t think it’s in our favour. When you play against Arsenal you know they can score in any stadium.

“Yes, we are playing at Anfield and our own supporters make a massive difference but we are playing against a very good team.

“You could see their quality tonight, they had plenty of possession so we needed to play on the counter-attack and work really hard in defence.”

But after puzzlingly leaving Adebayor free to head home Robin van Persie’s 23rd-minute corner, Benitez was delighted that it took only three minutes for Kuyt to come up with his response when he poked home Steven Gerrard’s cross.

“When you play Arsenal and concede a goal it’s really difficult if you don’t equalise soon after because they keep attacking,” he said.

“And if you make a mistake it’s 2-0. So it was really important for us to score fast.

“An away goal is always important and Anfield will be an advantage for us. We know if we can score it will be more difficult for them so it’s a good situation for us.

“A difficult situation, but better than before we scored.”