Hyypia scare for frustrated Reds

Liverpool endured the frustration of failing to break down Charlton and then discovered they could be without defender Sami Hyypia for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Benfica.

The Finn limped out of this evening’s goalless Anfield match at half-time with a hamstring injury which boss Rafael Benitez confirmed will need a scan.

Benitez said: “It is very close now to the Benfica game, but we will wait to see the result of the scan.”

Liverpool’s collection of strikers once again fail to produce the killer blows from a constant string of chances to claim victory.

And although Liverpool are now second in the Premiership, one point ahead of Manchester United, the Old Trafford men have two games in hand and can reclaim second spot if they avoid defeat at Wigan on Monday.

Benitez insists he retains confidence in his strikers and claimed that Robbie Fowler’s injury-time strike should have been allowed.

He said: “You can see the video, he was not offside.

“But I will not want to blame officials, we had so many chances we should have won the game, it’s as simple as that.

“But I do have faith in my strikers, if we create as many chances as that against Benfica, we will go through in the tie.”

Liverpool trail after the first leg in Portugal but showed good form against Charlton and would have won handsomely given a little luck. Charlton goalkeeper Thomas Myhre was also outstanding.

Reflecting on the missed chances, Benitez added: “We created so many, it seemed impossible to create more.

“But their goalkeeper was the man of the match and we did everything to win the game after controlling the play all the time.

“I have to be positive. We managed another clean sheet. If we are still saying these things in a month’s time, then it will be dangerous, but I am sure we will start to score the goals soon.”

Charlton boss Alan Curbishley said: “Liverpool dominated the match, and we knew we were going to be in for a hard game.

“But I told the lads that we have a decent record at Anfield since we got back into the Premiership and to try to add to that.

“I make no excuses. We did defend and we needed our goalkeeper to play well.

“We started the season winning five away games and then started to concede goals on our travels.

“I had to do something to stop that, and over the last few weeks we have defended much, much better and I felt we deserved the point for our defensive display.”