Pepe Reina believes Liverpool are in a strong position to reach the Europa League final.

Reina is convinced the Reds' mighty pedigree in Europe stands them in good stead to overturn Thursday's 1-0 first-leg deficit at Anfield next week - even without crocked Fernando Torres.

He said: "We have to be confident. It's only 1-0 and we've come from behind in the last two rounds against Lille and Benfica.

"The target now is to win and to try and make sure we don't concede. We can't use the journey as an excuse for losing in Madrid. You cannot look at things that way and try to find excuses why we lost.

"Liverpool are not that kind of team anyway. We know we must be big enough to take blame for the performance and to react well in the second leg.

"We won't have Torres again but we have 24 or 25 lads who will be ready for the match.

"In a way, it's a final itself and, hopefully, we can get the win for Fernando."