Rafa keen to avoid Red faces

RAFAEL BENITEZ has warned his Liverpool heroes to forget about last season’s Champions League triumph and concentrate on not being caught cold by minnows TNS at the first hurdle of the defence of their crown.

That may seem almost laughable when you consider that 49 days ago Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard was lifting the Champions League trophy after a memorable night in Istanbul when AC Milan were beaten on penalties, and the Anfield club took the world's top club competition for the fifth time.

But the meticulous Liverpool boss is aware of the pitfalls posed by the Welsh village side, a club who are champions of their country and hell bent on embarrassing their mighty opponents.

Benitez warned: "I have lots of memories of Istanbul, but we cannot think about the past. You have to work for the future and we must prepare properly for every game like this one because if we are caught sleeping and dreaming about the past we will be punished.

"I don't like to approach a game thinking in terms of David against Goliath and that David normally wins. I prefer to talk about playing against a good team who have won their league.

"We know we are favourites but we need to be careful because in football you never know what can happen.

"I have seen videos of them and studied two reports. We know they have a good target man and a second striker who scores lots of goals. They will be good in the air and they will be aggressive, for sure."

TNS like to make the most of their image as a village team from mid-Wales, but they are a lot better than that.

Owned and run by multi-millionaire Mike Harris and with players who have tasted life at league clubs several at Liverpool and Everton this is a team who have frankly outgrown the Welsh league, much like Barry Town did a few years back before a lack of progress to a higher level and eventually finance, slowly destroyed them.

Meanwhile Luis Figo is no closer to joining Liverpool after Real Madrid reported a lack of progress on transfer talks, which now look close to collapse.

Madrid vice-president Emilio Butragueno stated that there had been no fresh developments regarding Liverpool's interest in the winger.

Liverpool thought they had negotiated the free transfer move of Figo away from the Bernabeu, on a wage of around £65,000 a week.

But Madrid have since insisted on a £2million fee, prompting the Merseysiders to cool their interest, with Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez conceding he has been forced to investigate different options.