INJURIES MAR WIN FOR THE REDS

By Mighty Reds
August 23 2006

Liverpool came through their Champions League qualifier match by beating Maccabi Haifa with an aggregate score of 3-2 and though it secures an expected £12 million, it came at the cost of a few more injuries.

Momo Sissoko and Stephen Warnock were forced of with knee and ankle injuries.

It was satisfying though to get through to the groups stage of the Champions League and Rafa Benitez was delighted to get through this tricky match.

He said:

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."