BENITEZ LIFTED FOR EURO CAMPAIGN
Liverpool gave themselves the perfect confidence boost ahead of the Champions League campaign by beating the title-holders.
The Anfield men start their group matches on Tuesday away to Marseille on a ground that has seen them suffer UEFA Cup heartache and - last season - Champions League survival.
Boss Rafael Benitez may well have skipper Steven Gerrard and top striker Fernando Torres ready to play from the start against the French side.
Both players were on the bench for the excellent 2-1 home Premier League victory over champions Manchester United, and only Gerrard - who has recovered well from a groin operation - got into the action for the final 22 minutes.
Now Benitez said: "We could not have asked for a better boost to our confidence than a victory over the best team in England, and the European champions.
"Now we will go to Marseille in a good frame of mind. That was our best performance of the season and we now feel we can go into a Champions League game in good heart and spirit."
And Benitez was delighted with the general form ahead of a tough away tie in Europe.
He said: "We are still unbeaten, but we had not been at our best. The victory against Manchester United has changed all that.
"We have made a statement about our form in domestic competition, and the victory will not go unnoticed in Europe.
"We did it without Torres and Gerrard, and we will have to wait and see how they are for Europe.
"We have a few training sessions now before the game in France, and both of them have been improving all the time."
Torres has been out with a hamstring injury, while Gerrard has made rapid improvement following a groin operation.
The trip to Marseille will rekindle memories of Liverpool's roller-coaster ride to the Champions League semi-finals last season.
Marseille became the first French side to win a European tie at Anfield with a shock 1-0 success 11 months ago.
That set in motion a shattering few weeks when Liverpool's form collapsed in Europe and they were under severe threat of not surviving the group stages.
Three weeks after the Marseille defeat, Liverpool lost 2-1 in Istanbul against Besiktas in another disastrous group A match.
From then on they needed to divert all their energies to reaching the knock-out stages. Failure would have cost millions and threatened Benitez's job.
They started the comeback with a stunning 8-0 win over Besiktas in the Anfield return, then thumped Porto 4-1 later in November.
Then came the winner-takes-all trip to the south of France to confront Marseille in their own backyard. Victory would have sent either side through at the other's expense.
But Liverpool stormed to a brilliant 4-0 victory at the beginning of December, with fine goals from Gerrard, Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel.
That win secured a trip to Inter Milan in the last 16, and memorable victories in both legs. Arsenal in the quarter-finals were the next side to suffer at Liverpool's hands to set-up that tense semi-final with Chelsea.
Liverpool lost that, only really because of a John Arne Riise own-goal in the first leg.
Now Liverpool want a good start to this season's group campaign. Benitez added: "It was not a good start last season, it will be a lot better this time."
