Benitez seeks top-four spot before Japan trip

Rafael Benitez wants his Liverpool side to be in a Champions League qualification place before they travel to Japan for next month's Club World Championship.

Liverpool lie seventh, three points behind fourth-placed Wigan Athletic who they play on Saturday after facing bottom club Sunderland tonight.

"We have three games in the League before we go to Japan and we want to be in a strong position," Benitez told reporters.

"We play Sunderland and then Wigan so maybe we can get into the top four. Sunderland is a really important game for us and we know what we have to do.

"It will be fantastic for us to go to Japan with three more league wins. That is my aim. Then we can then go to Japan thinking only of that trophy and not the league.

"Then the league will have a more realistic look about it because right from the start of the season we have played less games than our rivals."

Liverpool also face Chelsea in the Champions League and Middlesbrough in the Premier League before travelling to Japan.