UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Olympique Lyon v Liverpool: RAFAEL BENITEZ leads Liverpool into their crucial Champions League tie with Lyon tonight admitting a victory to ease the pressure and revive qualification hopes would rank among the finest achievements of his Anfield career.
Benitez, who will ask Fernando Torres to again play through the pain barrier amid an injury crisis that has cost him seven players, is in familiar backs-to-the-wall territory following a dreadful sequence of six defeats in seven matches.
The Anfield club have never lost three successive matches in this competition but they will be staring at a costly exit should that ignominious statistic arrive at Stade Gerland.
“It is always important for us to win at Liverpool and we have a lot of good memories, but it will be a massive achievement if we can do it here,” Benitez said. “It is such an important game that could give us a better atmosphere [around the club] and can give us a platform to build on. Our fans are very clever. They know what the position of the club was when we arrived and what it is now. They know sometimes you have bad moments and that we are working so hard to try and change this.”
Asked what victory would mean for his own position, the manager responded: “I am really pleased to be here and I want to be here for a long time. Always, if you walk through a storm you hold your head up high, so that is what we will do.”
Liverpool have a tradition of dramatic recoveries in Europe and under Benitez. They have twice had a worse points total at this stage of a group and qualified on both occasions – in 2001-02 and 2007-08, when they collected only one point from their first three matches then defeated Besiktas, Porto and Marseille to progress.
“We are very positive. We know it will be difficult but we have experience of this,” Benitez said. “We have to believe we can do it because we’ve done it in the past. We respect Lyon but we have to do our job and play well and win. When you are under pressure you have to show character, analyse things and be calm. If you are nervous you make mistakes. We have experience of the way we need to do things.”
Benitez will be without the injured Steven Gerrard, Albert Riera, Martin Skrtel, Martin Kelly, Andrea Dossena, Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio tonight – while Torres is nursing a hernia, Daniel Agger, David Ngog, Alberto Aquilani and Diego Cavalieri all have problems. Liverpool’s defence has been badly hit by the injury crisis and Johnson’s calf problem could lead to Jamie Carragher being deployed at right back or possibly a first ever start for the 21-year-old Stephen Darby.
The chances of Torres starting appear optimistic, although the Liverpool manager confirmed his leading striker is at risk of requiring surgery on a hernia if he is overplayed.
Benitez added: “I was talking with the doctor and he said it’s a sportsman’s hernia. It means he has a problem and we have to manage the problem. The positive thing is he is improving. He is training, sometimes with pain and playing sometimes with pain, but it’s less pain every time. Hopefully we can continue doing well with him, and maybe he will not need an operation, that is our idea.”
A seventh defeat in eight games would be something Liverpool have not experienced since Bill Shankly’s appointment as manager, 50 years ago on December 1st.
Lyon, with three wins already, need one point to qualify for the last 16 while a Champions League exit would cost Liverpool upwards of €16.8 million and leave their season facing ruin.
Commenting on Gerrard not even travelling to France, Benitez insisted a decision on whether his skipper needs a groin operation will not be taken until Liverpool return to Merseyside. He says: “We do not want either player to have an operation, we will hope that they continue to improve. It is too early to say just yet.”
Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani is on the verge of starting his first game for the club, while a late decision will be taken on Daniel Agger’s back problem.
Benitez said: “At one stage 14 players were injured or had a virus, no club could cope with that. If any of the top sides in England lost four or five of their very best players and then four or five from their bench, they would struggle.
“People do not realise how important Torres and Gerrard are until you lose them, this situation is not easy for anyone. But we will do our best and we do have the experience of such situations. Two years ago we also needed to win our final three group matches, and we succeeded. We can do that again. The players here are strong enough for this challenge. The mentality of the group is good, and they are determined to win.”
Dutch forward Dirk Kuyt summed up the attitude of the senior players, saying: “Situations like this bring people closer together, the whole team. We showed how we could react to bad situations when we beat Manchester United recently, we can produce results like that again.”
Guardian Service
