Torres double sinks Portsmouth

Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel and the impressive Alberto Aquilani all scored in the space of six minutes to give the Reds an unassailable half-time lead. Torres rounded off the win in the second period before Nadir Belhadj's late consolation.

The result will give Rafael Benitez's men encouragement going into Thursday's Europa League second leg against Lille. "We knew that it was a must-win game. Fortunately we did it and performed really well, hopefully we can do it again on Thursday," Reina said.

"When the team is playing well we can score any time. For those 10 minutes we were incredible."

Aquilani and the fans have been frustrated in equal measure by his inactivity since his summer move from Roma.

"I have waited a lot of time (for the goal) but I am very happy today because we won the game," Aquilani said.

"We need to win a lot of games to get in the top four and this is the first."