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John Arne Riise says that he’s determined to come back even stronger after the nightmare last few mintues he had on Tuesday night. Where the referee got 4 minutes injury-time from I’ll never know - perhaps if Drogba had managed to stop play acting as much and concentrate on playing football then the ‘injury’ time would have been much less.

“I’ve learned it’s the way you hit back that matters. Mentally, I am the best. I’ve got my head back in place after a heavy night. I’m going to learn from this.”

“I decided to stoop and head the ball in the direction it came from,” Riise explained.

“But it was a swerving cross, the ball was wet, and it slid right off my forehead. It was a shock to see it lying in the goal.”

Riise has just one year left on his contract but says he hopes to be a Liverpool player beyond that - “I hope and still believe in a new contract with Liverpool, but I cannot say definitely that I have a future here when I only have one year left of my deal and haven’t heard anything from the club yet.”

He had been linked with a possible move to Newcastle United but I think we should keep him at Liverpool because he is a quality player week in, week out.

Benitez had confirmed that Steven Gerrard is fit for tonight’s Champions League semi-final, first leg at Anfield.

>> Click here to see Benitez talking

Gerrard sat out of Saturday’s 2 - 0 win over Fulham because of a reported neck injury. Lampard is also now fit for Chelsea.

The match is live on ITV 1 from 7.30 pm.

Chief executive of Liverpool Football Club, Rick Parry, is likely to have talks with manager Rafael Benitez to clear up any problems.

Benitez was unhappy after further revelations about the meetings with Jurgen Klinsmann last year regarding succeeding him as Anfield boss.

Parry said: “I am more than happy to sit down and talk to Rafa about this.” 

Benitez is thought to have exchanged emails with Hicks and Gillett after the 3-1 win over Blackburn.

In his post-match press conference Benitez admitted he was unhappy after reading Hicks’ claims that Gillett and Parry spoke with Klinsmann last year about becoming manager.

This just goes to show that the owners of our great club clearly have no regard for what Benitez had acheived for the Club. Perhaps that’s the point; it’s all seen as a business rather than a football club…

Speaking after Liverpool’s fantastic 4 - 2 victory over Arsenal last night Rafael Benitez said: “I was delighted with the belief, particularly in the second half.”

“When we went to 2-2 so near the end, my players showed tremendous character and desire to get up off the ground to win the tie. ”

“We had been so poor before the break, but so much better in the second half.”

Click here to watch Rafa’s interview after the match

Benitez continued “It was a tremendous game for our fans, there were six goals and we played so well.

“I hear Steven Gerrard has said it was a poor game by him, but I was satisfied. He scored a crucially important penalty for us when it really mattered, that was positive from him to take it so well.”

Goal hero Ryan Babel believes it was the incredible support of the Kop that inspired Liverpool to overcome Arsenal on another wonderful European night at Anfield. See the News Story on Liverpoolfc.tv now!!!

Rafa said that he believes the game tonight is the most important if they want to win a trophy this season. He said “It will be very difficult for Arsenal to win the Premier League.”

Watch Rafa’s news conference here…

Rafa said we’re not going to play for a 0-0 draw to try and get through on the away goals rule, he thinks Arsenal could suffer at Anfield like Chelsea did; “I saw Chelsea affected by the Kop, it was clear. Hopefully it will be the same again.

“When you have to face our fans for 90 minutes on top of you, then it is not easy for the majority of players.

“This is our only option if we want to win anything. It is important for us, we need heart but also brain.”

There are various reports about Arsenal suffering from tiredness, with players like Fabregas got through 41 games this season already….

Peter Crouch finished nicely early on to put us in the lead at the Emirates until Bendtner put a header in from a Fabregas free kick. I’m sure you’ll agree this sets things up nicely for tomorrow night’s champions league second leg at Anfield.

Only 3 of the team from last weeks Champions League match started on Saturday; Reina, Carragher and Skrtel underlining the fact that Rafa is more focused on the the Champions League tie.

Crouch picked up Reina’s goal kick and drove forward to the edge of the box to drive a low shot into the bottom corner.

Once Arsenal had equalised I was surprised that they didn’t push forwards for a winner as everyone was expecting. We had the best chances to take the lead in the latter half of the game - Crouch set up Voronin but he shot wide. I couldn’t beleive Voronin managed to fall over after going round Almunia, all he had to do was put the ball in the net and we could have taken all 3 points and ended Arsenal’s title dreams.

Sami Hyypia says that Liverpool did not worry when they went behind against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

The first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final ended 1 -1 and leaves Liverpool with the advantage for the return leg at Anfield.

Liverpool were level in the 26th minunte, just 3 minutes after Adebayor’s header, when Dirk Kuyt slotted a goal through from a low pass from Stevie G.

Hyypia was happy with the result and Liverpools response to going a goal down. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “We always knew that we shouldn’t panic, even if they scored.”

“If we scored the goal in the 90th minute or something, that’s still the away goal. It was important not to panic.”

Just a week to go until the semi’s then!!

Rafa Benitez says that he wants Pepe Reina to keep up the punching off his goal-line. 

After Reina’s flapping at Old Trafford he made amends by keeping a clean sheet at Everton on Sunday with a record 54th clean sheet in his 100th Liverpool appearance to beat Ray clemence’s record for the most clean sheets in 100 games.

The reds face a tough trip to the Emirates tonight to face Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions league last 16.

This is a blog about Liverpool Football Club.