Rafael Benitez praised match-winner Mark Gonzalez after tonight’s Champions League qualifying victory over Maccabi Haifa – then revealed he is close to signing a new striker.
Chilean winger Gonzalez scored the winner within moments of coming on for his debut in the 2-1 third qualifying round first-leg win at Anfield
Liverpool had been forced to battle back from a goal down after Gustavo Boccoli struck with Craig Bellamy – also on his debut – equalising soon after.
But the glaring need for more forward options was obvious and speculation continues that Liverpool are closer to signing £10m-rated Holland international Dirk Kuyt.
Yet even though Benitez now has an extra £2m from selling Djimi Traore to Charlton, he remained cagey.
He said: “We have two or three names, Kuyt is one. We are still working hard but maybe a little closer.”
Gonzalez’s goal saved Liverpool from a potentially tricky second leg at a neutral venue.
It seems the choice is now between Cyprus or Kiev but Liverpool’s group stage hopes are still on knife edge wherever the game is played.
Benitez said: “We knew Mark was capable of goals, he has shown that in La Liga. It was not a gamble to take off Steven Gerrard, we have players from the World Cup who are 15 days behind the rest in their training.
Chilean winger Gonzalez scored the winner within moments of coming on for his debut in the 2-1 third qualifying round first-leg win at Anfield
Liverpool had been forced to battle back from a goal down after Gustavo Boccoli struck with Craig Bellamy – also on his debut – equalising soon after.
But the glaring need for more forward options was obvious and speculation continues that Liverpool are closer to signing £10m-rated Holland international Dirk Kuyt.
Yet even though Benitez now has an extra £2m from selling Djimi Traore to Charlton, he remained cagey.
He said: “We have two or three names, Kuyt is one. We are still working hard but maybe a little closer.”
Gonzalez’s goal saved Liverpool from a potentially tricky second leg at a neutral venue.
It seems the choice is now between Cyprus or Kiev but Liverpool’s group stage hopes are still on knife edge wherever the game is played.
Benitez said: “We knew Mark was capable of goals, he has shown that in La Liga. It was not a gamble to take off Steven Gerrard, we have players from the World Cup who are 15 days behind the rest in their training.
went to a restaurant in Prague that had pictures of Czech footballers that had eaten there, Nedved, baros and then a classic of Jan Koller looking really gormless holding a fork with the biggest piece of meat I've seen attached to it, to add to our amusement we suddenly realised that one of mates must be Jan Koller's love child because he is as an absolute spitting image of him
(sorry for the random of topic bit)
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