Rafa Benitez admits he finds it easier to control Champions League games

RAFAEL BENITEZ has admitted he finds it easier to influence European games than he does Premier League matches.

The Liverpool manager masterminded his team to yet another memorable Champions League triumph with at 2-0 first knockout round win over Inter Milan on Tuesday night.

It has put the Anfield outfit in a strong position to secure a 12th appearance in a European Cup quarter-final ahead of the second leg at the San Siro on March 11.

While Benitez has led Liverpool to two European Cup finals in the last three seasons, he has struggled to replicate that success in the top-flight with his side currently outside a Champions League qualification berth in fifth place.

And the Spaniard concedes the more hectic nature of English football in comparison to the considered approach of Continental combat makes it more difficult to control proceedings.

“In Europe you can approach a game tactically in a different way,” said Benitez. “In England it is a different style of football and more difficult for the manager to influence what goes on.

“It is not as simple to influence the game with tactics in England the way it is elsewhere in Europe.”

Despite Liverpool’s fine performance on Tuesday, Benitez is keen to keep feet at Anfield firmly on the ground.

“We have made it very difficult for Inter now, two goals and a clean sheet,” he said.

“But they have a lot of good players and we will need to show plenty of respect and approach the game with confidence, but no complacency.

“There, I suppose, is the prospect of history repeating itself with us going for a European final when we are not in the title race (as in 2005).

“But I would prefer not to think that far ahead, I always say ‘one game at a time’ and never has that phrase been more appropriate.

“We will go to Milan with confidence but they are really good so we will not be over-confident,” he added.

“You could see the quality of Inter’s players. And just look at their bench, they had (Patrick) Vieira, (Hernan) Crespo, (Luis) Figo plus very good defenders like (Nicolas) Burdisso.

“That is the sort of quality you are up against, that is why they will be very difficult in Milan.”

It took strikes from Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard inside the final five minutes to turn Liverpool’s superiority into tangible reward.

But Benitez said: “I always had confidence that we would score. We were attacking a lot and one goal I felt was likely. So to get two like we did was maybe a surprise. But we certainly deserved to at least score.

“Everyone knew we needed to perform well, that was really the point after so much had been said about us.

“I have always had confidence in the team. If we can play like we did against Inter over and over again, it will be good and we will win a lot of games.

“Maybe the dressing room felt the need to prove people wrong. But their attitude was no different really to plenty of other games.”

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