Benitez turns attention to Chelsea
LIVERPOOL, England: Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez got the ball rolling on Wednesday in the inevitable war of words with Jose Mourinho that will dominate the build up to his team's Champions League semifinal against Chelsea.
Benitez was in buoyant mood after his side eased past PSV Eindhoven 4-0 on aggregate after a 1-0 Anfield win.
With the tie effectively settled by Liverpool's 3-0 victory in the Netherlands Wednesday's game had the feeling of a dead rubber and Peter Crouch's close-range effort in the 67th minute was a rare highlight.
With so little to discuss from the night's action, attention immediately turned to the semifinal repeat of 2005 when Liverpool advanced courtesy of a controversial goal scored by Luis Garcia that gave Liverpool a 1-0 aggregate win.
That victory sparked the frosty relationship between Benitez and Mourinho that grew cool during subsequent meetings as the teams met in a series of domestic and European fixtures.
"We were good friends until we started beating them, then it started changing," a smiling Benitez told a news conference.
"He has a very good relationship with the managers of the teams that normally he beats. He then starts fighting with those from the top teams."
Looking ahead to the showdown with the English opponents he knows better than any other, the Spaniard said: "As manager of Liverpool you have to be confident but Chelsea are a very good team.
"The only thing is that the second leg is at Anfield and if we do something at Stamford Bridge then maybe we have an advantage but you saw yesterday how good they are as a counter-attacking side."
The was precious little attacking by either team on Wednesday as PSV repeated the cagey approach that served them so poorly at home.
"We were controlling it and that was the idea to score a goal and finish the game," Benitez said.
"The second half was better for us and after the sending off it was easy."
Agencies
(China Daily 04/13/2007 page24)
