Rafael Benitez yesterday shrugged off the increasing pressure surrounding his position as Liverpool manager in the wake of the club’s embarrassing exit from the FA Cup.
Benitez, in charge at Anfield since 2004, was booed along with his players as they were knocked out of the competition after suffering a 2-1 extra-time home defeat at the hands of Championship strugglers Reading on Wednesday.
The result is a serious blow to Benitez’s hopes of ending Liverpool’s four-year wait for a trophy and means the Spaniard must win the second-tier European club competition Europa League if he is to secure the club’s first piece of major silverware since the 2006 FA Cup triumph against West Ham United.
PHOTO: AFP
“It is really bad. Everyone wanted to progress but we can’t so we are disappointed,” the 49-year-old Benitez said after the third-round replay defeat.
“Reading worked very hard, but there were a lot of things I did not like. We had chances, they had chances. They were doing well but we might have won too. The chances they created worried me but we had some too,” he said.
“In the second half we had more control but after we made a lot of mistakes. We know the FA Cup is a massive competition and we wanted to progress. At this moment we are really disappointed, for the fans who came to support the team. We tried to win from the beginning,” Benitez said.
He was already under pressure before this game after the team’s Champions League exit and their faltering Premier League campaign, which sees them 12 points behind leaders Chelsea in the title race.
Losing to Reading has again put his position back in the spotlight ahead of tomorrow’s tricky away game at Stoke City.
However, Benitez insists he can handle the criticism.
“For three months everyone was talking about me. At the end, as a manager you have to be disappointed, but then move forward and think about Stoke on Saturday,” he said. “We are frustrated but you have to carry on. Everyone is disappointed. We have to prepare for Saturday’s game because it will be difficult.”
As if Benitez did not have enough problems, his two best players, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, are both major doubts for the weekend.
Torres limped off in the first half with a twisted knee, while Gerrard has a hamstring problem. Both were to undergo scans yesterday.
“We’ll see what the doctors say,” said Benitez, who completed the signing of Argentine winger Maxi Rodriguez from Atletico Madrid earlier on Wednesday.
Reading caretaker manager Brian McDermott insisted his side deserved the victory.
“We played some really good stuff,” he said. “We did the right thing, played in the right way. Liverpool’s goal could have hurt us, but we responded well. I’m chuffed for everybody. To come here and win is terrific.”
Liverpool went ahead after an own goal by Ryan Bertrand but were stunned by a stoppage-time penalty leveler by Gylfi Sigurdsson which sent the tie into extra time.
Substitute Shane Long then headed a 100th-minute winner for Reading.
In Wednesday’s other game, Danish international striker Peter Lovenkrands scored a hat-trick to ease Newcastle United to a 3-0 victory over fellow Championship side Plymouth Argyle in their FA Cup third-round replay.
The 29-year-old — a former Rangers and Schalke 04 player — struck twice in the first-half and added his third in the 72nd minute to send the Championship leaders through to a fourth-round meeting away at West Bromwich Albion, managed by former FA Cup winner Roberto di Matteo.
Lovenkrands has rarely shone at the Magpies but he more than repaid the faith shown in him by manager Chris Hughton as he struck in the 10th minute shooting home after fine work by man of the match, Argentine winger Jonas Gutierrez.
Lovenkrands, who appeared at the 2002 World Cup finals and the Euro 2004 finals, struck again five minutes from the break with a header.
Plymouth, who are third from bottom of the Championship, never threatened Newcastle’s goal and Lovenkrands wrapped up the match 18 minutes from full-time with a soft shot that still crept past goalkeeper Roman Larrieu and extended Newcastle’s unbeaten run to 13.
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