Rafa Benitez: Liverpool can beat ANY european opposition

Oct 3 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

Rafa Benitez, lfc

RAFAEL BENITEZ believes his Liverpool team can beat anyone as they prepare for a Champions League showdown in Madrid later this month.

The Anfield side extended their unbeaten run this term to 11 matches with Wednesday’s 3-1 Champions League win over PSV Eindhoven and will now face Atletico Madrid, the other side in the group with a 100% record, on October 22 in the Spanish capital.

Benitez is in such confident mood after seeing the Dutch champions outclassed – in a match marked by Steven Gerrard’s 100th goal for the club – that he said: “Stevie is young enough and good enough to go on now and score 200 goals for this club.”

It was a special occasion for manager and players at Anfield.

Dirk Kuyt’s opener on the night was Liverpool’s 100th European goal scored under Benitez, with the Spaniard clocking up his 250th match in charge.

Then Robbie Keane scored his first for Liverpool on his 11th appearance, before Gerrard brought the house down with a piledriver for his own century. It is a far cry from this stage last term when Liverpool were in crisis with one point from their opening two group matches. Now they have won their first two pool games for the first time.

Benitez sees a more resilient, focused side going great guns in the Premier League and Europe.

He said: “Last season was a bad experience for us in the group right from the start.