Reading boss Steve Coppell is taking inspiration from Barnsley's shock FA Cup win at Liverpool ahead of his side's trip to Anfield on Saturday.The Royals are fighting to avoid relegation from the Premier League and have been boosted by back-to-back wins over Middlesbrough and Manchester City, results that lifted them out of the bottom three following eight straight losses.

Coppell took the players away for a four-day training camp in Spain to prepare for the Anfield clash and the squad watched Liverpool's Champions League victory over Inter Milan on the television.

Former England winger Coppell is now hoping Rafael Benitez's squad will put in the sort of performance that allowed Championship outfit Barnsley to knock them out of the FA Cup last month rather than a repeat of that display in the San Siro.

He said: "We watched them play while we were out there. That was a tremendous performance and a great result to beat the champions of Italy home and away. You look at the depth of their squad and think what a powerful outfit they are.

"But they can only put 11 on the pitch at one time which is why you still get Barnsley-type results. Every team in the Premier League does have a hope of beating the elite teams and that could be a factor towards the end of the season."

Liverpool's path to the Champions League final is barred by Arsenal, with Chelsea awaiting the winners in the semis should Avram Grant's side overcome Fenerbahce in their quarter-final.

The Reds are also involved in a tense tussle with city rivals Everton for the final Champions League qualifying spot for next season but Coppell was convinced Benitez would be happy to finish fifth if it meant European glory could be achieved for the second time in his reign.

He said: "For him, the Holy Grail is definitely returning to the heady days when Liverpool were winning the big one on a regular basis.

"If they won the Champions League but finished fifth in the league, it would still be a successful season because that's the exclusive cup.

"Liverpool fans would see winning the league and doing nothing in Europe as the better result but everyone else looks at Europe as being the special one at the moment."

Coppell is unlikely to make too many changes following those long-awaited victories over Boro and City that also saw his defence rack up an even rarer clean sheet on both occasions.

One man who has suddenly come under extra scrutiny, however, is midfielder Marek Matejovsky, who has been quoted as saying the Reading strikers were too selfish to pass to him during that losing streak and that Coppell just stands around doing nothing on the training ground.

The Royals boss was prepared to give the January recruit from the Czech Republic the benefit of the doubt.

He said: "I walk around and don't do anything do I? I've been a manager for 25 years yet amazingly people still employ me.

"I won't be having a word with him though. He is learning English at a rapid rate of knots and I can only assume somewhere in the equation he was misquoted."

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