Inter coach Benitez hails Spurs development

ROME — Inter Milan coach Rafael Benitez said Champions League opponents Tottenham have come on leaps and bounds since he left the Premier League.Benitez spent six years at Liverpool, winning a Champions League and an FA Cup before moving to Italy in the summer.Having guided Liverpool in the Champions League every season since arriving in England, Benitez's side finished seventh in the last campaign and missed out on Europe's Premier club competition.And it is Harry Redknapp's Spurs who have replaced them in the Champions League after their fourth spot last season.Benitez feels the Londoners are a better team than they were during his Merseyside tenure."Clearly there's a difference, Tottenham have improved a lot, they've invested a lot of money in players and have done so in the right way," he said on Tuesday from the pre-match press conference for Wednesday's Group A clash at the San Siro."Once again you can understand that it's the players who have made the difference in almost every match."Tottenham are an example of a team that has the quality and desire to do well."I think they're doing well (in their first year in the Champions League), they seen to have energy, quality and the desire to win, hence it will be difficult to beat them"Inter and Spurs top the group on four points each, three points clear of Werder Bremen and FC Twente but the Italians' goal difference of plus four is one better than Totenham's.As well as knowing the English side well from his six years in the country, Benitez had Spurs's Peter Crouch on his books at Anfield for three years.Crouch didn't always convince Benitez to pick him and was sold to Portsmouth in 2008.But Benitez doesn't believe the beanpole striker will be out to prove a point to his ex-boss."I think Crouch is a good lad, we bought him from Southampton and he didn't score for the first 14 games but I always remained close to him and I had a good relationship with him."I also wanted to keep him in my team but (Steven) Gerrard and (Fernando) Torres scored 55 goals (b

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