Rafa happy to take slender lead

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was satisfied with his side's 1-0 Europa League victory over Unirea Urziceni despite their obvious struggles to break down the determined Romanians.

Striker David Ngog's goal nine minutes from time eventually ended the resistance to give the Reds some breathing space ahead of next week's return leg and, although Benitez would have liked a bigger cushion, he was happy to take a slender lead to Bucharest.

"I think we could have scored one or two more goals but that is football," he said. "The team was doing well in defence, 1-0 and a clean sheet is not bad."

He added: "Sometimes when the other team is defending well you have to be patient and keep more of the ball and then we scored at the end.

"It is always important to score, especially in this competition, and not concede so we were waiting for this goal and were really please when we scored.

"It is not the best result but it is good. If we score one [in Romania] they have to score three so a clean sheet was important so we have to be relieved.

"If you ask me if I would prefer 2-0 then 100% yes but you cannot change the score now.

"We knew they were well-organised and they were a good team so we were expecting more or less their style of play."

Two substitutes played a major part in the goal with Ryan Babel crossing for Daniel Pacheco to head back to Ngog and Benitez said he was glad to have options from the bench.

"It is always important to have good players on the bench with skills that can change a game," he added.

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