un journaliste a signalé à rafa que morinho a dit:"le monde entier est contre chelsea,ça vous aide,non?",rafa a répondu:"m'en fous,on a nos supporters avec nous,ça suffit".
benitez considère que la bataille fut en milieu de terrain et que les milieux de terrain de LFC sont meilleurs.
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Chelsea are afraid of us, says Benitez
By Tim Rich (Filed: 30/09/2005)
It is not an accusation that could ever have been levelled at a man who wears his self-confidence like a suit of armour, but last night Jose Mourinho was informed by Rafael Benitez that he was afraid of Liverpool.
For a club who lie 14 points behind the Chelsea side he manages and who seem no threat to his title, Mourinho has wasted an awful lot of words on Anfield. And to the Liverpool manager that signifies a man who is uneasy about the threat his club pose.
"I am sure they do not like playing Liverpool," Benitez said yesterday. "They keep talking and talking about us. I think they are worried; I think they are afraid. I can't stop him talking about us but if they keep doing it, it means we are doing the right thing." Benitez remarked that not only did Liverpool play better against Chelsea on Wednesday night than they had in the European Cup semi-final, they were obviously the better team.
When he arrived on Merseyside on Tuesday, Mourinho dismissed Liverpool's credentials as champions of Europe, saying with some justice that they were not the continent's best team. After the goalless draw in the Champions League, he dismissed their tactics as nothing more than launching long balls towards the tall figure of Peter Crouch.
For Jamie Carragher this was the sound of pots casting insults at kettles. "We watched videos of Chelsea and when we saw their game against Bayern Munich, I couldn't remember seeing so many long balls since I started watching football in the 1980s.
"No one could accuse us of being too direct. Our midfielders got the better of them. When you look at the quality they've got in Lampard, Essien and Makelele, I thought Xabi [Alonso], Didi [Hamann] and Steven [Gerrard] had the upper hand."
Crouch is not yet in the class of Niall Quinn as a header of a long ball but if there was an accusation that could be levelled at Liverpool on Wednesday it was that in pushing Djibril Cisse to the right, Benitez did not give his big striker sufficient support.
With Wayne Rooney suspended for next Saturday's World Cup qualifier with Austria at Old Trafford, Carragher imagined that Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was at Anfield, would use Crouch as a foil for Michael Owen, who stands a full 11 inches shorter.
"Peter's shown what ability he has got on the deck," Carragher said. "I thought he was outstanding again. He has got to be favourite to wear that No 9 shirt for England against Austria."
Crouch was pleased by his display. "I always felt sure I could play at this level and, against Betis and Chelsea, I felt more than comfortable," he said. "John Terry is a great defender and not many cause him problems but I'd like to think that I did. I can take heart from that and do the same on Sunday and help us beat Chelsea because we really believe we can do that."
The stakes will be considerably higher. With Liverpool already badly adrift of Chelsea, albeit with two matches in hand, they could afford to lose on Wednesday in a way they simply cannot on Sunday. Mourinho, with a flick of his wrist, said that a Liverpool defeat would knock them out of the title race completely.
Benitez is nothing if not a realist. "I know we were the better team and we had a different side to the last time we played them; but it will be difficult to be better than them for nine months. All you can say is that for one game we did well."
Liverpool have not managed a goal in either of their Premiership encounters but Benitez, as always, appeared calm in the face of adversity. "I am not under pressure because I work for a fantastic board with a fantastic chairman and a have a good squad. We also have wonderful supporters."
Reminded of Mourinho's assertion that since the world was against Chelsea, the whole country would be supporting Liverpool on Sunday, Benitez replied laconically. "We have our supporters with us. I don't need anybody else."
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