We can reach the top four insists Rafa

DEFIANT Rafael Benitez refused to give up on fourth place despite Liverpool's hopes of Champions League qualification suffering another serious setback.

Benitez's side slumped to their 10th league defeat of the season when they lost 2-1 at bitter rivals Manchester United yesterday.

Fernando Torres gave the visitors the perfect start with a fifth-minute opener only for Wayne Rooney to convert the rebound seven minutes later after his controversial penalty was brilliantly saved by Pepe Reina.

Ji-Sung Park's winner on the hour means Liverpool have dropped to sixth place, four points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur having played a game more and two points behind Manchester City, who have two games in hand.

The likelihood is Liverpool will need to win all of their remaining seven games to give themselves a chance of a return to the Champions League.

But Benitez vowed still to fight, and said: "We have to keep going it depends on some other teams if they lose games. City, Tottenham and Villa have some difficult games to come.

"We have to get three points against Sunderland and then we will see. If we can win our games we will be there until the very end.

"We know it will be more difficult be we must keep pushing. It will be difficult, but still we have to fight. There are a lot of points to play for so we have to keep going.

"I think the fans can see that the team today was solid again. It is not like we are not doing well, not creating chances or are too weak.

"It depends on the other teams too. We have to win the first one, see what the position is in the table and think about the next one. We have to take one game at a time."

Torres's opener was his 18th goal of the season, but the striker endured a mixed afternoon, missing a late chance to equalise, given some rough treatment by the United defence and picking up a fourth booking in five games as he allowed his frustrations to get the better of him.

"We were talking about this it's not easy every game," said Benitez. "There were situations Fernando maybe didn't understand, and when you are on the pitch you find these things can happen. I spoke to him at half-time and he was focused. He was okay.

"Did United target him? I have my opinion and I prefer to analyse the performance of the team more than what it was to do with him."

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