Benitez: Focus on Lille not on United

(GSM) – Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has urged his playes to take it one game at a time as they prepare for a crucial week with matches against Lille and Manchester United ahead.

Liverpool enhanced their top four hopes with a 4-1 victory over Portsmouth earlier in the week, but with an important European tie next up, Benitez is eager to focus on that first – and not Sunday’s United match.

“The first game was easy to prepare for because it was Monday,” he told his pre-match press conference.

“Now we have two important games. We have to concentrate on the first one. After that we will think about Man United but we cannot have an eye on the second one in case we make a mistake in this one.

“We will try to win because we want to progress in the Europa League and after that we will try to beat Manchester United.”

Benitez believes the decent performance against Pompey has given the players an important boost going into the clash with Lille. The Reds need to overcome a 1-0 deficit from the first leg but the Spanish manager remains optimistic about their Europa League hopes.

“It will be positive to keep winning games, for the confidence of the players, but it’s also an opportunity to win something,” he said.

“We will try to do our best and we know we need to win to progress.”

He added: “I think they have quality, they also have some confidence now. The main thing is we will play at Anfield and we know what that means. We will have the fans behind us, so hopefully we will do our job properly and we can play well.”