BENITEZ HAILS BEST FANS IN WORLD

	Jimmy Rice 07 March 2007 Rafa Benitez has paid tribute to "the best supporters in the world" for their part in knocking the holders and favourites out of the Champions League.
The Reds progressed to the quarter-finals on away goals despite going down 1-0 in front of a jubilant Anfield. The game's finale was greeted with a stirring rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone – with even the Barca fans joining in. Benitez said: "I am really proud of the players and the supporters. They were amazing. We always have the best supporters in the world and tonight they were almost perfect." The Spaniard also played down his own part in the triumph, claiming the effort of his players was the key to victory. "I don't like to talk about tactical battles between managers, I think it's all about players and what they do on the field. It's not about managers. "I think I set up my team nicely for tonight tactically and I think we deserved to score on more than one occasion in the first half. "We began to suffer a little bit towards the end when we came under a little bit of pressure from Barcelona but even in the second half we were hitting them on the break. "We were in reasonable control but we weren't finishing our chances. Obviously things became a little bit more difficult after their goal but we managed to hang on and finish fairly strongly."