Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was happy to respond to Sir Alex Ferguson's reaction to an earlier rant after victory over Manchester United on Saturday. He had endured the Spanish waiter taunts from United fans and soaked up insults from Ferguson. "Disturbed" and "ridiculous" was how Ferguson described him after that outburst in January, adding last Friday that he will need to read "Freud" to understand his rival.

Reminded of all that, and the idea he was 'cracking up' in January, Benitez did something on Saturday he so rarely does. He smiled.

"I can guarantee you that I was calm and I am calm," he said. "But I had to defend my club and that is what I did.

"I read Freud in school and university but now I try to improve my English. Maybe he will understand me if I say something again but I have a lot of respect for him. We shook hands after the game because he was not talking bad blood. He is a fantastic manager at a big, big club. But I was not worried about myself. I was thinking only about my club. I think Liverpool has been the best team in Europe in the last five years. It is a fact."