RAFA: WE MUST HOLD HEADS HIGH
Jimmy Rice in Budapest 24 November 2009
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Rafa Benitez believes Liverpool can still enjoy a successful season in 2009-10 - but warned his players not to let their Champions League exit affect performances over the coming weeks.
The Reds did all they could by beating Debrecen 1-0 thanks to a David Ngog strike - but Fiorentina's victory over Lyon by the same scoreline meant we crashed out at the group stage for the first time under Benitez.
The boss admitted he was disappointed for the fans but urged everyone to stay positive ahead of a crucial Merseyside derby at the weekend.
Everton are one of the sides Liverpool could meet in the Europa League - and memories of a glorious campaign in 2001 means Steven Gerrard and co will be going all out to reach the final in Hamburg.
Benitez said: "You have to be disappointed. We did our job here but we cannot change things. If you analyse the games, two late goals against Lyon were a massive difference.
"You have the first half against Fiorentina and the two late goals but that's football and sometimes you can't control things. We had chances in all of the games - we could have won all of them.
"We have been so good in the last few years that people think it's easy to progress. You can see every year we've qualified and everyone expects us to be in the final.
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But the fans realise the team worked so hard and you can't expect more. We made two mistakes late against Lyon but the fans have some experience in Europe.
"We have to be positive, we have a massive game on Sunday and we have to make sure we are ready.
"I like to win every game and be as high as possible in all the competitions but I think more about the players, the staff and the fans and I'm disappointed for everyone.
"To win is always the target but when you are doing as well as you can you just have to think about the next target. We cannot win the Champions League, we know that. A lot of teams don't play in the Champions League. So we have to think about Everton and then the Europa League.
"The players know it's been a bad run of games but to win here and to show we can create a lot of chances is positive."
Asked if he and his team were keeping abreast of events in Italy during the Debrecen game, Benitez added: "At half-time we knew (it was 1-0) and we were waiting afterwards for news but the players didn't know."