Reina welcomes Cavalieri challenge
PEPE REINA today welcomed heightened competition for Liverpool's goalkeeping spot from the "almost perfect" Diego Cavalieri.
The Brazilian keeper again impressed in the Reds 4-0 win at Rangers on Saturday and Reina was quick to praise his new team-mate for the positive impact he has made on everyone at Liverpool since joining the club from Palmeiras earlier this summer.
And Reina, who made only his second pre-season appearance in the comfortable victory, believes Cavalieri's arrival will help push him to even greater heights.
"Diego is a good keeper," he said. "Technically, he is almost perfect, and he is quite complete.
"It is important for him to come in and do well and to keep a level high because if he does that it can only be good for the squad.
"It is always positive to have competition for places and it is no different for me.
"Hopefully, Diego will continue to play well and that will make me play well also because that will be good for the team."
Having been part of Spain's Euro 2008 winning squad, Reina is now looking for more success with Liverpool and he is also keen to add to his own playing time having only made two substitute appearances so far during pre-season.
Rafa Benitez's side take on Valarenga in Oslo tonight in their warm-up game and the Spanish keeper is looking forward to the opportunity to build up his match fitness.
He said: "It was a great achievement by Spain and it was a dream for me personally.
"I will never forget what happened because it was so special, but now I have to keep on going because it is another season with different targets and so let's see what we can achieve.
"It was good for me to be able to get some more minutes on the pitch and be involved with my team mates in a game again.
"It is all about improving little by little and hopefully I will get some more time on the pitch in our next game."
Goals from Fernando Torres, David Ngog, Yossi Benayoun and Xabi Alonso provided Liverpool with the most resounding win of their current preparations for the coming season and, although Reina played down the importance of such an emphatic friendly victory, he did admit he believes Liverpool are going in the right direction.
"Results now are not significant but the way we play is much more important," he said.
"We are looking to get better in every game and the way we pressed and counter attacked against Rangers showed that we are going in the right direction, but we know there are things we still need to improve."
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