Thursday, August 24, 2006
RAFA'S JOY TEMPERED BY MORE INJURY WOE
here's the report by Mark Platt in Kiev 23 August 2006
Rafael Benitez spoke of his delight after Liverpool confirmed their place in Friday's Champions League group phase draw but admitted his satisfaction was tempered by two new injury setbacks.
Peter Crouch's goal in the 1-1 draw against Maccabi Haifa in Kiev was enough to secure an aggregate 3-2 success but it wasn’t all good news for the Reds as both Stephen Warnock and Momo Sissoko were forced off with ankle and knee problems respectively.
"It was a difficult game but it's good to have qualified. I am really happy," said Benitez. "It's not been easy to start pre-season without some players and our results in pre-season were not the best so it's always a relief to come through a tie like this. I am sure that once the international break is out of the way you will see the team improve.
"In the first half we had a lot of clear chances but their goalkeeper was fantastic. In my opinion, he was man of the match. We had some problems towards the end defensively but that is normal when a team is chasing the game. In these situations we need to score again to kill the game.
"But it was very disappointing to lose another two players through injury. Stephen's is hopefully not too serious but Momo could be out for two or three weeks. We will have to see."
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here's the report by Mark Platt in Kiev 23 August 2006
Rafael Benitez spoke of his delight after Liverpool confirmed their place in Friday's Champions League group phase draw but admitted his satisfaction was tempered by two new injury setbacks.
Peter Crouch's goal in the 1-1 draw against Maccabi Haifa in Kiev was enough to secure an aggregate 3-2 success but it wasn’t all good news for the Reds as both Stephen Warnock and Momo Sissoko were forced off with ankle and knee problems respectively.
"It was a difficult game but it's good to have qualified. I am really happy," said Benitez. "It's not been easy to start pre-season without some players and our results in pre-season were not the best so it's always a relief to come through a tie like this. I am sure that once the international break is out of the way you will see the team improve.
"In the first half we had a lot of clear chances but their goalkeeper was fantastic. In my opinion, he was man of the match. We had some problems towards the end defensively but that is normal when a team is chasing the game. In these situations we need to score again to kill the game.
"But it was very disappointing to lose another two players through injury. Stephen's is hopefully not too serious but Momo could be out for two or three weeks. We will have to see."
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