Buoyant Benítez sees room for improvement

Liverpool FC manager Rafael Benítez believes his side "still have room for improvement" despite overwhelming Real Madrid CF 4-0 at Anfield in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League first knockout round tie. His opposite number, Juande Ramos, rued the two early goals as Madrid exited the competition for the fifth time in as many seasons at this stage but vowed to continue with "the challenge ahead", namely deposing FC Barcelona of top spot in the Liga.

Rafael Benítez, Liverpool manager
Tonight we played really well from beginning to end and I am pleased for the players and the fans. It is unfair to talk about individuals because everyone was very, very good so I am really pleased for everyone and we deserved this victory. Fernando Torres and Álvaro Arbeloa were close to not featuring tonight so I'm very pleased for them. Torres scored and Arbeloa kept on running until the end. Maybe Madrid were expecting us to play deep and counterattack but we put them under pressure from the start and tried to win. We are always confident in Europe because the team have been very good for the past five years.

When you have important games coming up players play well and we will enjoy this victory until Saturday [when Liverpool play Manchester United FC]. We have to be pleased to score four against a top side like Madrid. However, we could have scored more so there is always room for improvement. When you play against Madrid it will always be difficult but we played really well away from home and tonight was the same but in a different way. This is an important victory in an important competition and in the next round we will play against another big name and we will have to win again.

Juande Ramos, Madrid coach
We are very disappointed and sad to be out of the competition. We conceded two early goals and then tried to equalise which always left us open to a Liverpool counterattack. We are not happy with the result but they were the better side on the night and deserved to go through. We tried to take the game to them but the goals made things difficult and it was always going to be tough when we went two down. The game started evenly with both teams trying to win, but the first goal really helped Liverpool. All teams are equal at this stage in the competition. You must play against the very cream of Europe and small incidents can swing in certain sides' favour, but Liverpool deserved to win tonight. Everyone is feeling down but we will go into training tomorrow, prepare for the next game and continue with the challenge ahead.