Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez felt his much-changed team were rewarded for their hard work after edging past Leeds 1-0 in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night.
The Premier League giants were given a scare by the League One leaders at an electric Elland Road before eventually settling the third-round tie with a second-half David Ngog goal. Leeds had a first-half goal disallowed and spurned a number of other opportunities before Ngog netted against the run of play with 65 minutes gone.
"We worked hard and I feel we had our chances," said Benitez, who made nine changes, brushing off suggestions that his team had ridden their luck.
"We won with a lot of players not playing and I am really pleased with my team, with the squad. These kind of games are very important to keep the quality of character. I think it was a fantastic win for us.
"I think we showed we can manage with different players and for the rest of the season it is important to know you have players who can come in."
Javier Mascherano was at the centre of one of the game's other talking points after catching Jermaine Beckford with his arm but neither manager made much of the incident. Benitez said the player "was turning around" while Leeds boss Simon Grayson also played it down.
Grayson said: "Mascherano had an arm that went and nicked Jermaine but sometimes they are not done for a reaction."
Grayson did feel his side were unlucky to have been denied a goal when Beckford's effort was ruled out for offside. Beckford was stopped short in his celebrations after turning in a goalbound header from Lubomir Michalik at close range after 11 minutes, with Luciano Becchio possibly the man given offside as he added an unnecessary extra touch on the line.
"I felt Jermaine was level with the centre-half for the goal but we are talking marginal errors at times," said Grayson. "I'm loathe to criticise but when you look he was level and the goal should have stood."
Grayson however was delighted with his players' performance which, in front of a lively 38,168 crowd, rekindled memories of Leeds' Premier League days, adding: "I'm hugely proud of them. I thought they were excellent from start to finish."
Comment 11 - 30 of 30
yip u @#$%
The atmosphere was......LOUD! VERY LOUD!!! ELECTRIC!!!! DEAFENING!!!
the Manure showering our stories with there usual shyte, It would be good to see leeds back in the prem if not just for the fact they hate manure.
loserpoo is fast becoming an average team!!!..if not mediocre....SERIOUSLY...
BLAME IT ON,RAFAT!!!...
I`m a season ticket holder and like 38,000 more fans was treated to a brill display against Liverpool second string whom i`m told had 7 internationals on show . Not bad for a so called second string. As for the match Snodgrass played well as did all the Leeds players but my man of the match was Kisnosbo by a street what a find.
well said andrew, the big boys are missing us, we are not missing them, man u missing there cup final every season, we will sort them when we are back.
im a leeds fan through and through season ticket holder since i can remember but in times like this (leauge 1) who cares about trophies and cups we can start to work on those when we are where we belong lets get to the prem lets keep top of the leauge avoid play-offs and go up as champions then dominate coca-cola championship then keep to the prem come on boys mot and manure losing tonight 5.00 bet
yeah the pic is of Ronaldo servicing Rooney as he so often done and I dont mean assists, I agree Rafaforpope if UTD lose Rooney they have no one to replace him, how many points has he already won for them this season?
ngog the new henry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
high ambitions for rafa!!the 3 hopes come to mind,some hope,no hope&bob hope....
liverpool rule the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
man u suck my balls
what a load of rubbish
NO1DARREN
AT LAST A LIVEINTHEPAST FC FAN TALKIN FFUKIN SENSE !
ar..shut up
u all juz a fanz
not a player..
let them do the job..
juz look,support n cheer,k..
wuhu..
Yesterday we didn't quite get the rub of the green. Mascherano was a little lucky to be on the field when his mis-cued shot fell to Ngog. It was certainly not off-side, Becchio was not interfering with play because the ball was already going in when he touched it and Beckford was at worst level but C'est la vie. I'll sooner have the luck in a crucial league game somewhere further into the season if you dont mind. All in all though job done for us - we have shown that we can play at a better level than league 1 (the passing and movement was better than that seen at almost half the Premier teams), we got some money (TV rights and gate money) and lost! The best result actually in the circumstances as we need to concentrate on the important thing which is promotion. Good luck to Liverpool - as a Leeds fan I will always remember the magnanimity of their fans when we won the League in 1969 - hope you win the cup now.
#9 - you ar right about penalties, not replays, for rounds one through five (rule 13.4). But heres something you might not know - in the semifinal, if after the two legs + extra time the scores are still level, the game does not go automatically to penalties - at this point away goals are counted double. Only then, if this does not break the tie, does the match go to penalties (rule 13.5). Interesting, that.
Liverpool's poor strength reserves beat a very good Leeds team last night that many Premiership sides would have struggled with.
If Liverpool only have to lose Torres or Gerrard to fall apart at least we have two players.
If manure lose Rooney they don't have any.
liverpool sucks!! they need a stronger bench than what we saw last night. And that Riera guy, when are they selling him to some obscure Greek team? that guy sucks..if you see him the first time, you might get an impression that he is good but just having a bad game, come next game same story!!
Firstly, respect to Leeds, they were up for it last night and deserved more. Agree with all who have written LFC's squad has no strength in depth. We look very fragile in certain area's. Strangely, even with Carra, Skrtel and Johnson at the back, (i know the side was different last night..) the defence is looking very shaky, even though that's usually our strong point. We've conceeded far too many soft goals already this season and last night would've been another if the lineman kept his flag down. And yes, with either Gerrard or Torres out of action we're gonna have probs, but saying that, people say that about us every year and i think we only had both on the pitch at the same time for half of last season, and we didn't do too bad! Still, 5 wins on the bounce and not playing particularly well..... some would say that's the mark of a pretty good side! But realistically, are we gonna go the rest of the season unbeaten in the league? No chance i'm afraid.
haha they were @#$%. should have got beat but lucky as always if luck didnt exist they would get relegated
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