Benitez: Staying positive

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Rafa Benitez was pleased to emerge unscathed as Liverpool scraped into the UEFA Champions League group stages.

The Reds toiled for 118 minutes against Standard Liege on Wednesday, seemingly facing up to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out to determine their European fate.

However, Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt spared their blushes with a late winner to break Belgian hearts.

The Merseyside giants were far from impressive in getting the job done, but their Spanish coach preferred to take the positives ahead of another Champions League campaign.

Benitez said: "Obviously there is some relief with the result. We knew it would be a difficult game against a quick, well-organised team.

"The positive was that we played a little better than recently, we want to win trophies but we also understand the need for money.

"I was delighted that Dirk Kuyt scored the goal. His work is tremendous, he keeps going right to the end and makes a tremendous contribution to our side."

Organised

Liege boss Laszlo Boloni was disappointed to fall at the final hurdle, but feels his side look in good shape as they prepare to drop into the Uefa Cup.

"We are very sad after that result," he said.

"Over two matches we have been the best organised team and we deserved better than to lose like that in the final minutes.

"We have produced a high standard in both matches, and now I hope that can be continued in our league matches and the Uefa Cup.

"I sometimes wondered whether the referee was effected by the fact that we were playing a big team. I felt we should have had a couple of penalties.

"But in the end we created a lot of good situations in both matches and did not make use of them."