Carra plays down exit fears

Reds star tries to stay positive

Last updated: 24th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Carra plays down exit fears

Carragher: Rallying call

LIVE ON SKY SPORTS

Watch Debrecen v Liverpool live on Sky Sports 2, HD2 and online with Sky Player from 7.30pm on Tuesday.

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher claims a UEFA Champions League exit would not be a huge disaster.

The Reds are facing the prospect of crashing out of Europe's premier competition at the group stage with their fate out of their own hands.

Liverpool are requiring Group E leaders Lyon to do them a favour against Fiorentina as they look to keep their European dreams alive with victory over Debrecen in Hungary.

A win for Fiorentina over Lyon would end Liverpool's involvement in the Champions League whatever the result in Hungary.

However, defender Carragher, a stalwart of all Liverpool's achievements in the past decade, can still see the opportunity of more European success even if results conspire against them on Tuesday night.

He will be battling for the cause as usual against the Hungarian champions, but said: "Going out of the Champions League would not be the disaster people think.

Europa League

"Obviously we will do everything we can to stay in it by making sure at least we win our match tonight. But if we do go out, there is always the Europa League.

"If we could go on and win that, it would put a different gloss on our season."

Carragher remains hopeful Liverpool can upset the odds to reach the knockout stages and believes the Reds need a victory over Debrecen to boost their confidence ahead of this weekend's Merseyside derby with Everton.

"We always believe at this club that we can do special things. We have done it in the past and we know we can do it again," added Carragher.

"We have grown up with this team and the manager over the last five years, so it (the Champions League) is a part of the club.

"We have got ourselves into a bit of a hole, and hopefully we can get out of it. It has been done before and we know we can do it again."

Worst scenario

He added: "We have to win our own game. The worse possible scenario is that the other game goes for us and we don't do our job. We must concentrate on our own game.

"What happens here is not just about the Champions League. A win here will get the confidence going again and us playing well again.

"We have a big game at Everton on Sunday, so we want need to get a good result to give us confidence not just for the Champions League but for other big games too.

"We need a good result, a good performance. There is a lot more at stake than a Champions League win. We just have to do our job and hope the other game go for us."