United still European favourites

Rafael Benitez maintains that holders Manchester United are now favourites to retain the Champions League crown.
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The Liverpool boss was reacting to Friday's quarter-final draw which has paired the Anfield club with Chelsea for the fifth season on the trot in this competition.

If Liverpool get past that battle, they must play Barcelona or Bayern Munich in the semi-finals for the right to take part in the Rome final on May 27.

Manchester United will play Porto in the quarter-finals and if they are successful they would play the winners of the Arsenal v Villarreal tie in the last four.

Benitez said: "Manchester United must now be favourites - they have an easier draw than us."

"Our half of the draw is the more difficult now after this draw."

But Benitez was pleased the prospect of Liverpool having to play on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster was now gone.

"Obviously we did not want to do that and with the second leg of our quarter-final now scheduled for London on the 14th (April), our wishes have been agreed with," he said.

"Hopefully it won't make a difference to us that the second leg is away.

"We have to think about the first game at Anfield with our fans behind us and look to get a positive result to take to Stamford Bridge.

"We need to make sure we don't make a mistake in the first leg like we did in last year's semi-final.

"They will be two tough games but we are playing well and clearly we are confident we can win."

Last season's semi-final first leg between the two sides featured an injury-time own goal from John Arne Riise which ultimately proved decisive.

Benitez had hoped to avoid an English side, but he added: "At this stage of the competition, you know you'll play against a good team. Chelsea are a very good team.

"We know each other very well and this is an exciting draw. We knew it would be difficult to avoid an English team but we need to approach the two games with confidence.

"We have done the double over them this season in the league but clearly these two games in the quarter-finals will be different."