Benítez salutes Anfield faithful

Rafael Benítez thanked the Liverpool FC fans for their display of support as three goals in the last 12 minutes gave them an invaluable UEFA Champions League Group A win against FC Porto, meaning if they win their final-day trip to Olympique de Marseille they will go through. Had Porto held on at 1-1, they would have been qualified tonight, but they now still need a point against Beşiktaş JK to the frustration of coach Jesualdo Ferreira.

Rafael Benítez, Liverpool manager
I would like to say thank you to our supporters because as always they were magnificent. Porto played well for a lot of the game, controlling the middle, so we needed to change our forward players. We needed people to keep hold of the ball as they were pressing us. We had to win this game as everyone likes to go through in the Champions League. Marseille will be a tough game, the atmosphere will be for them and they played very well here. But we deserve to be in the position we are now, rather than the one we were in six weeks ago.

Jesualdo Ferreira, Porto coach
We had a very good first half and first 25 minutes of the second half. Porto were the better side and Liverpool found it very difficult to come forward. The idea was to pass the ball quickly, and this caused Liverpool difficulties. We tried to carry on this plan when we made the substitutions, but they scored the second goal. The scoreline was not a fair reflection of the game, and we didn't deserve to lose by that margin. Liverpool are a very good team and the result is very bad for us.