Rafael Benitez has backed Liverpool to produce a cup final display in Marseille and avoid a humiliating early exit from the Champions League.Liverpool know they must taste victory in the south of France on Tuesday night if they are to remain among the European elite after Christmas and Saturday evening's 3-1 defeat at Reading was hardly the ideal start to a week that ends on Sunday with the visit of Manchester United.

But Benitez was confident nonetheless. He said: "We have experience of finals so we will do the same thing we were doing before. It is an important game but the players have experience of those.

"Since I have been here we have been in seven finals. We have won four so we have enough experience and quality in the squad to win."

Indeed, the Spaniard insisted he was personally relishing the pressure he finds himself under and likened it to his most successful seven days as a manager, in 2004.

He said: "We played one Saturday for Valencia to win the league and then on the Thursday to win the UEFA Cup. We won both so I like to be in this sort of situation because it means you are playing for something. We have confidence that we can do it."

More Football News from TEAMtalk