Champions League Follow-upLiverpool's shuttle bus juddered to a premature halt on the tarmac at John Lennon International Airport in the small hours of yesterday, leaving tired, tracksuited players cursing as the batteries drained on their iPods. Fortunately for the Merseysiders, their Champions League campaign shows little sign of breaking down just yet.

It has been an unlikely one to date. Such is the perception that Rafael Benitez's side are one of the weaker teams remaining in this competition that the seven managers who will join the Spaniard in next week's quarter-final draw will privately be hoping to be paired with the four-time European champions. Not long ago that would have been unthinkable.

The bookies rate only PSV Eindhoven and Porto as more unlikely winners of the competition this season, though the Dutch are top of their domestic championship and the Portuguese are the holders. Liverpool's progress among the elite has been very much a surprise.

That much has dawned on the club's players, even after Wednesday's emphatic win at Bayer Leverkusen. "The best teams don't always win the Champions League," said Jamie Carragher, who has been left drawing hope from Jose Mourinho - the man who verbally abused him so eagerly at last month's League Cup final - for his exploits at Porto last season. "I'd imagine every game will be tight and could go either way, but, in a one-off, anything can happen.

"We will be considered outsiders in the last eight, and probably rightly so because there are a lot of teams left in who are winning trophies and titles in their own countries. Milan and Chelsea will be looked upon as among the best teams in Europe. We're not up there, but we've probably done a lot more already than many people thought we would. We are just delighted Liverpool, a great name and a great club, are in the quarter-finals."

The current crop have yet to develop into a great team, though they may already have achieved more than Benitez could have hoped when he took over last summer. He arrived to find a squad stagnating, the impetus having long drained from Gerard Houllier's once-impressive reign. Much that the Spaniard has tried to instil since then has been subtle, reserved for the eyes of those on the training pitch.

Communicating the tactical intricacies in still alien surroundings through stilted English has been problematic and results have not always been forthcoming but, on the Continent, he remains in his element.

It is against European opposition that Benitez's painstaking preparation has reaped its most obvious rewards. He has benefited from a kind draw and a gargantuan performance from his best player, Steven Gerrard, when it was needed most against Olympiakos in December. His tactics against Leverkusen nullified the Germans' threat - which remained considerable given previous successes this season - even to the inclusion of the often wayward Igor Biscan in the middle and the incorporation of the excellent Stephen Warnock at left-back. The 23-year-old was outstanding, with Bernd Schneider, an established international, driven back into anonymity.

"We work a lot on tactics as a team, how the team is going to play and the weaknesses of our opponents," added Carragher. "We probably do more tactical work now than I have done with any manager at any level in my career. That's how he likes to do things."

Benitez is also publicly cautious, burying his fierce ambition under a realistic outlook. He, more than anyone, knows where Liverpool could be found wanting, which explains his growing exasperation at Harry Kewell's absence, apparently through injury. However, to be contemplating a quarter-final - even if it be against Juventus 20 years after Heysel, a chilling prospect - is remarkable.

Maybe, just maybe, there could be a glorious finale in Istanbul to Benitez's turbulent first season in charge.