Just five games are left in the 2012-13 season, but Reds stopper Pepe Reina says major occasions to look forward to still remain on Liverpool’s fixture list — beginning with Chelsea on Sunday.
The Spaniard kept a second consecutive clean sheet on Saturday as Brendan Rodgers‘ side was frustrated by Reading and opposite number Alex McCarthy in particular.
But the 30-year-old has quickly switched his focus to Chelsea this weekend and the opportunity to finish the campaign with a series of positive results.
“There are still 15 points to play for, and it’s vitally important we finish the season well,” the keeper told the Liverpool Echo. “We need to make sure that we are focused on the games we’ve got remaining, and we need to end the season with a winning mentality. That will be important in terms of next season. There will be no shortage of motivation.
“Look at the games we’ve got left, Chelsea and Everton at home, Newcastle away — those kind of matches are a motivation for any player and even more so when you are wearing a Liverpool shirt.
“We need to get some wins. If that gets us into Europe, then good, but if not, we need those wins for our own pride. Whenever you get the opportunity to play for this club, you need to give 100 percent in every game and try to win them all.”
Reflecting on the goalless draw at the Madejski Stadium, Reina accepted that there are matches when sides simply cannot find their way past a goalkeeper.
“We are frustrated not to have got the three points,” he added. “We created enough chances to win the game by a lot of goals but credit to their goalkeeper McCarthy, who was absolutely extraordinary. It happens in football sometimes when the opposition goalkeeper has a day like that. You could play for three days and not score a goal.
“We could have done more in the first half. But it wasn’t easy, as Reading were playing for their lives. This was their last chance to survive. They were chasing the game in the second half, and the game became a lot more open. We had so many chances that we have to be disappointed.”
