Benitez wary of knockout round

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez shrugged off Tuesday's 3-2 defeat at Galatasaray and said the real Champions League business is about to start.

The Premier League club finished top of Group C despite suffering their first defeat in this year's competition and will now have the advantage of playing the second leg of their last 16 tie at Anfield.

"It will be difficult now because they are all top teams," Benitez said yesterday.

"Last season we drew Benfica and everyone said it would be easy, but we lost."

Liverpool's task will become clearer after next week's draw but whoever the 2005 European champions get paired with, Benitez said they cannot afford the lapses that allowed Galatasaray to record their only win.

"We paid for bad mistakes," Benitez said. "You cannot expect to win if you make mistakes like that.

"But I always felt it would be a difficult game for the players, they knew they were already group winners and the job had been done."

Benitez rested captain Steven Gerrard and gave chances to several squad players, including stand-in keeper Jerzy Dudek who saved Andriy Shevchenko's penalty in the same stadium to clinch the European Cup 19 months ago.

Youngsters Gabriel Paletta and Danny Guthrie were all handed rare tastes of Champions League football as Benitez looks to the future.

"I rested some senior players because we have a busy couple of months and I wanted to see what futures there are for the young players," he said.

Of the 11 players who started the final against Milan last May, only Dudek, defenders Jamie Carragher and John Arne Riise and midfielder Xabi Alonso were selected for Tuesday's return to the Ataturk Stadium.

Carragher is closing in on Liverpool's all-time European appearance record held by Ian Callaghan with 89. His appearance on Tuesday put him equal second on 85 with Tommy Smith.