PREMIER LEAGUE: XABI ALONSO has admitted Champions League exit holds no positives for Liverpool in their quest to win the Premier League and that Rafael Benitez's team face a formidable challenge to wrestle the title from Manchester United.
While Benitez took a manager’s prerogative and extolled the virtues of a remarkable quarter-final tie at Chelsea on Tuesday night, claiming Liverpool’s second-leg recovery had restored pride and renewed belief ahead of the title run-in, his compatriot could not identify any advantages in the 7-5 aggregate defeat.
The Premier League, the club’s priority all season, now stands as Liverpool’s only hope of a trophy; but even though they are only a point behind United and in superior form to Alex Ferguson’s champions, Alonso admits the impetus remains at Old Trafford.
“It is going to be very difficult to win the league but we have to have a go and try to win all our games,” said the Spain international, whose side’s next fixture is at home to Arsenal on Tuesday. Ferguson triggered another riposte from Benitez with his suggestion that United’s main Premier League rivals will be the losers in the Liverpool-Chelsea Champions League encounter, owing to the increased preparation time between each league game, but even that fact offered little consolation for Alonso.
“You never know what the impact might be,” he continued. “Logically, we should have more time to rest now but sometimes you prefer to keep playing games. It can help you to keep playing. We are not happy because we are out of the Champions League.”
Stamford Bridge did at least provide evidence of Liverpool’s defiance against the odds. In many respects their position in the Premier League is similar to the predicament that confronted the Anfield club prior to the second leg in west London, having arrived with a 3-1 deficit and the weight of Champions League history against them. Ajax remain the only side to have overturned a first-leg home defeat in the Champions League yet Alonso, for all his acute frustration against Chelsea, believes Liverpool’s character guarantees they will also take United to the limit in the coming weeks.
“Character is a big part of this team. We keep fighting when in difficult situations and we showed that against Chelsea,” he said. “We don’t do it to show anything to people, we do it because we want to show ourselves, we want to keep alive and have chances to win things. We tried to get over a very difficult situation at Stamford Bridge but we lost the tie at Anfield. I believed we would go through against Chelsea, absolutely. After the great first half we played we had reasons to believe.
“We can take pride in our performance. Everyone kept fighting to the end. At certain moments things were difficult, especially after going 3-2 [down], but we scored two more goals and with 10 minutes left we had a good chance to go through if we scored another goal. But there were chances for both sides and in the end we were not able to go through and we are very disappointed.”
Benitez claimed Liverpool’s four goals at Stamford Bridge, having also scored four against United and Real Madrid plus five against Aston Villa in recent weeks, should ensure there is no shortage of confidence for the remaining six games of the season. Liverpool have now scored 25 in the past eight matches in all competitions, compared with only nine in the previous eight. “We are in a good moment in the Premier League and we have to try and keep that moment,” Alonso added.
The Liverpool goalkeeper, Jose Reina, has taken responsibility for allowing Didier Drogba’s faint touch to sneak inside his near post and effectively turn the second leg in Chelsea’s favour on Tuesday. “It was bad positioning by me,” he admitted. “I was too in the middle of the goal. I should have been closer to the near post. It was my mistake. I have to recognise it. That’s the life of a goalkeeper.”
Reina, however, believes that Liverpool will not be distracted from the challenge of trying to win the club’s first league championship since 1990. “There are six games remaining and we have to win them all,” he said.
“It’s in United’s hands. We must try to win them and wait. We will never give up. We are Liverpool. That’s our character and the way we are. We will continue to fight until the end.”
Guardian Service
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