Chelsea will be desperate to stop their rut in the English Premier League when they travel to Sunderland.
The Blues are in serious danger of losing their chances of winning back the Premier League title if they don't get on a positive run immediately. They already lie ten points behind leaders Manchester United and know nothing but a win will do against a Sunderland side struggling for goals and points.
"We have to beat Sunderland, and if we can we'll be closer to at least one of the leaders," he explained. "My job is to concentrate on my team and if we can be closer sooner rather than later that would be good. We have a chance as long as we start winning games.
"The last game was very good, you can talk about the level of the other team but it was the Champions League and the level and intensity was fantastic. I watched it again and I was very pleased with the performance. Even at 75 minutes and 85 minutes we were still pushing," Benitez added on the 6-1 win over Nordsjaelland.
Frank Lampard will make a return to the squad, even though he is unlikely to start, but John Terry is set to miss out on the Club World Cup after failing to recover from his injury. Daniel Sturridge will also miss the Sunderland game, but could yet go to Japan.
"Terry will not fly to Japan because the doctor has warned of an inflammation and said that flying is not the best idea, so he will stay here and obviously miss the Sunderland game as well," Benitez said.
"He's training very hard with the physios, but the knee is a special case, we'll have to see what happens.
"Lampard has been training today, he's in the squad for Sunderland and if everything is fine he will come to Japan," Benitez added. "At least we have one important player back because we need character and experience.
"If you have to play him because something's wrong, he can make a difference. If you play him when everything is fine, he can also have an impact, so all of these players with quality and experience are welcome.
"He is a quality player. He scores goals, understands the game and is a good passer of the ball.
"Sturridge has been training but it's too early for him, so he will not travel to Sunderland. We will see if he can fly with us to Japan at a later date."
For Sunderland, Steven Fletcher and John O'Shea are major doubts, while Lee Cattermole has been ruled out for two months.
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Expected lineups: Sunderland: Mignolet; Bardsley, Kilgallon, Cuellar, Rose; Gardner, Colback; Johnson, Larsson, Sessegnon; Wickham.
Chelsea: Cech; Cole, Luiz, Cahill, Ivanovic; Romeu, Ramires; Moses, Mata, Hazard; Torres.
Prediction: 2-0 to Chelsea
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