XABI RELISHING OLD TRAFFORD SHOWDOWN
Paul Eaton 18 January 2006
Xabi Alonso believes Liverpool's clash with Manchester United this weekend takes on even more importance than usual with second place up for grabs in the Premiership table.
A Liverpool victory at Old Trafford will take the Reds ahead of their fierce Manchester rivals with two games still in hand.
Alonso knows the Reds face a tough test against Alex Ferguson's men, but he's confident Liverpool can maintain their excellent recent run of form and leapfrog United in the league table.
He told Liverpoolfc.tv: "We all know what this game means. It's like a derby and is a match everyone looks forward to.
"It's always a big occasion but I think this one is even more important than normal. We know if we win then we can go two points ahead of them and still have two extra games to play. That will be a great position for us to be in.
"We know it's going to be difficult though because United have a great team with great players and they have home advantage. With Van Nistelrooy and Rooney they have dangermen in their team and so we need to be careful. It's always difficult to win big games but we go there with confidence.
"We're doing much better away from home this season and that's why we can get a result at Old Trafford. We're more solid, more compact and more consistent in our results. If we do things properly during the match then we will have chances to win the game."
If the Reds do record a victory at United this weekend, Alonso insists much work will still need to be done to help us achieve our end of season ambitions.
"It's a long race and there's a lot of football to be played," he added. "After we play United we'll have taken 21 steps in the race this season and have 17 more to go. In football anything can happen.
"We don't need to talk about catching Chelsea at the moment. We have to look after our own results first. They are a good side who have an amazing record from their first 20 games. It's difficult to see them dropping too many points but you never know.
"We've won a lot of matches over the last couple of months and it can be a frustration when you see the gap isn't really closing. But, as I said, we need to look after ourselves first and make sure we keep picking up the right results.
"We're reaching a key stage of the season now because we have most of the top teams to play over the next four to six weeks. If we can get some good results from this period then we should be well placed.
"We did well last weekend to beat Tottenham because they are a good side and, even though we weren't at our best, we still did enough to win the points. We're in for another tough test this weekend but we can again get the result we need."
