Rafa bullish after Reds run riot

Yossi Benayoun grabbed a hat-trick and second-half substitute Ryan Babel almost matched it in the space of six minutes.

Liverpool recorded the biggest win in the tournament's history to keep alive their hopes of qualifying from Group A on a night when Chelsea also moved closer to the next phase.

Porto are next up for Liverpool, in three weeks, and Benitez briefly shed his cautious image by saying: 'They will have seen what we did tonight and they will be worried. For sure, they will be. They have to come to Anfield and face a team and crowd who are full of confidence.'

Eclipsing Arsenal's 7-0 win against Slavia Prague last month, Benitez reflected with pride on his most emphatic victory as Liverpool manager in his 50th Champions League tie since arriving from Valencia.

With typical attention to detail, though, he still managed to spot one or two flaws in what was seen by most as a near-perfect performance.

He said: 'We had belief before this game that we could still go through, but it is stronger than ever. We still need to win the remaining two games, but not only has this given the players' confidence a real boost, it has made the supporters believe we can do it.

'Porto have experience in Europe and can handle pressure, but they will be worried when they see what we have done tonight. We must make sure we put them to the test and create the same number of chances.

'We were creating chances before, but you could see the difference here, once the first goal went in. It was the break we needed and the movement and confidence just kept getting better the more space started to open up.

'The goals will have done Yossi and Ryan a power of good, but I also thought Peter Crouch showed up well and Andriy Voronin did a fantastic job. The whole team did and while our sights are always set on winning trophies, it gives me great satisfaction if we can set records along the way. That has to have a positive effect on everyone.

'Was it a perfect performance? I wouldn't go that far. I saw two or three things we can improve on, but now isn't the time to be talking about that.'

Only the crossbar denied Babel a six-minute hat-trick, while Crouch made the most of a rare start with a double and Steven Gerrard moved to within one goal of equalling Michael Owen's Liverpool record of 22 in Europe.

It was all too much for Besiktas coach Ertugrul Saglam, who spoke for barely a minute at the press conference before leaving without taking questions.

'The result has upset me greatly, and we would like to say sorry to all our fans,' he said. 'It is very difficult to accept, but life goes on.'

Liverpool received another boost when they were given the go-ahead to build a redesigned £400million stadium in nearby Stanley Park. The capacity will be 60,000 initially, but there is scope to expand it to 76,000.