Real Madrid have improved, Liverpool are worse: Raul

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posted on 15 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Raul, however, believes that Liverpool will test Madrid in both legs.

New Delhi: Raul Gonzalez believes that Real Madrid have improved since they were drawn to play Liverpool in the Champions League- and that the Premier League side's form has dropped.

When the two teams were paired together in December, Los Merengues were still suffering from inconsistency, but they have since embarked on an impressive run of wins.

Liverpool will test Madrid in both legs, Raul believes, only now the Spanish giants will be able to match their English opponents and make a concerted effort to beat them.

"I think it will be a tight tie," he told Marca. "We are in much better form than when the draw happened and Liverpool have somewhat gone down a bit.

"We will play 180 tense minutes and I think the tie will be decided by small details. Liverpool are a very strong team.

"But we need to win the first game without conceding any goals. A goalless draw in Madrid would be good for us, just as it was against Manchester United years ago.

"Then a draw in Anfield would be enough to go through to the next round."

Raul has also not given up hope of winning the Spanish league title after reducing Barcelona's lead at the top of the table to seven points at the weekend.

"We have chances of winning the league title, but we also had them three weeks ago. I think we can win if we stay close to Barcelona the last seven or eight games," he continued.

"It is all up to Barcelona now. We'll try to make good use of their mistakes. We have to fight to the end."

The Madrid captain then praised coach Juande Ramos for turning the club's fortunes around. He thinks that the coach is responsible for the renewed confidence within the squad.

"The team is in great form and all of the players are performing at a very high level," he explained. "We dominate our matches and have many chances on goal.

"We feel more comfortable on the pitch. We are confident at this key stage of the campaign. The moment of truth has arrived.

"Juande's work has improved gradually with every game. He has calmed us down. We score more goals now and hardly concede any. Our morale, confidence and desire are sky high."