DEFIANT Rafael Benitez refused to give up on fourth place despite Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League qualification suffering another serious setback.

Benitez’s side slumped to their 10th league defeat of the season when they lost 2-1 at bitter rivals Manchester United yesterday.

Fernando Torres gave the visitors the perfect start with a fifth-minute opener only for Wayne Rooney to convert the rebound seven minutes later after his controversial penalty was brilliantly saved by Pepe Reina.

Ji-Sung Park’s winner on the hour means Liverpool have dropped to sixth place, four points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur having played a game more and two points behind Manchester City, who have two games in hand.

The likelihood is Liverpool will need to win all of their remaining seven games to give themselves a chance of a return to the Champions League.

But Benitez vowed still to fight, and said: “We have to keep going it depends on some other teams if they lose games. City, Tottenham and Villa have some difficult games to come.

“We have to get three points against Sunderland and then we will see. If we can win our games we will be there until the very end.

“We know it will be more difficult be we must keep pushing. It will be difficult, but still we have to fight. There are a lot of points to play for so we have to keep going.