Torres: Win will give us confidence

Man of the match Fernando Torres believes Liverpool’s 4-0 thrashing of Blackburn was the perfect response to last week’s Champions League defeat to Chelsea.

The Reds went above Manchester United in the Premier League table with a convincing victory, which Torres, who scored twice at Anfield, says will give them confidence going into next week’s quarter-final second leg.

“It was a great result coming after the game against Chelsea,” Torres told Sky Sports.

“The last game wasn’t good but we’ve done our job today.

“We have confidence after this result to go to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.”

Torres' first goal was a contender for goal of the season, the Spaniard controlling a long ball on his chest before swivelling to hook a fierce strike into the far corner.

“Sometimes you try to score like this but normally the ball goes out,” he added. “But this one went in. It was a good goal.”

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was delighted with the performance and said the pressure is now all on Manchester United, who had a later kick-off today.

“We needed to play well and score goals and we didn’t concede against a team good in the air so it’s a very, very positive result,” he said.

“I’m pleased we scored four goals and we were able to rest Gerrard and change some players towards the end.

“Hopefully Manchester United will make a mistake (against Sunderland). You never know. The pressure is all on them.”

Despite Daniel Agger and David Ngog adding two more goals in the last 10 minutes, Benitez added: “In the first half and the second half we had two or three very clear chances so we could have scored even more.”