[lfc-news] Rafa full of festive cheer - Official Site

Official LFC Website, 26 Dec 2004
RAFA FULL OF FESTIVE CHEER
By Lee Brown

Reds boss Rafa Benitez said Happy Christmas to the supporters and then called for more festive cheer after the Reds began their busy yule time campaign with a 5-0 routing of West Bromwich Albion.

Goals from John Arne Riise (2), Florent Sinama Pongolle, Steven Gerrard and Luis Garcia gave Liverpool the points and Benitez hopes it is only the beginning as he looks to reduce the gap on
the teams above them.

He said, 'It's a Happy Christmas for us and for the supporters, but we want to reduce the gap on the sides above us and I hope this will give us a lot of confidence.

'We have a lot of games now and if we can show the same mentality at home in the next two games, we will get more points.'

Benitez even had the luxury of resting some his key players before Tuesday's visit of Southampton, something he was glad to do, 'It is important to change your players, but it is impossible for some of them because we only have 48 hours until our next game.'

He continued, 'We are looking to reduce the gap, but we are always only thinking of that next game and we expect to have Neil Mellor and Harry Kewell available for that.'

It was hard to pick a man of the match amongst so many good performers for the Reds and Benitez was quick to point out that not only the goalscorers were the key to this win.

Saying, 'It is an advantage to play against ten men, but sometimes it can be difficult. But all the team concentrated all of the time and that enabled us to win.'