ROQUE Santa Cruz insists Blackburn Rovers must now beat the champions-elect Manchester United if they are to qualify for Europe.

Rovers' hopes of an Intertoto Cup berth are slipping away following yesterday's disappointing 3-1 defeat at Liverpool.

It came just 24 hours after closest rivals Aston Villa and Manchester City registered victories, while sixth-placed Portsmouth opened up a six point cushion on Rovers.

With four games remaining, Blackburn must look to win them all if they are to harbour realistic ambitions of playing European football next season.

And Rovers striker Santa Cruz says that includes toppling United at Ewood Park this weekend.

"We have nothing against Manchester United winning the league," said the Paraguayan, who netted a late consolation at Anfield yesterday.

"But we are in need of points to get closer into Europe.

"That's our ambition, but there's few games left, so for me this game against United is a cup final.

"The next game is very important, because if we want to keep the pressure on Aston Villa and Portsmouth, we need to get a result."

A point against Liverpool would have been regarded a satisfactory outcome for Mark Hughes' men.

But Santa Cruz admits that his side were far from their best at Anfield, as Liverpool kept up their challenge for fourth spot with three goals in the final 30 minutes.

Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Andriy Voronin were all on target, before Santa Cruz salvaged a late consolation with a terrific volley.

"We didn't play as well as we can - and that's why we lost. We are disappointed with that," said the former Bayern Munch star "We felt we could get a very good result here, either winning or drawing.

"But we didn't play as well as we have been playing - and you need to play well against Liverpool because they are a great side.

"Even though they are a very good side, we are very disappointed to lose.

"We didn't quite have the same quality on the ball, and we didn't play our normal game, so I don't think the confidence was there.

"And after they scored their first goal, we couldn't get into them and get that goal.

"But there are many things that we can look at and say we didn't do as well as we have been doing."

And Santa Cruz was honest to admit that he was at fault for Liverpool's opening goal.

His sloppy pass outside the Rovers penalty box eventually led to Gerrard slotting past Brad Friedel.

Santa Cruz said: "It's never good to lose the ball in that position.

"But it was Gerrard's enthusiasm to make a great run and a fantastic goal.

"But it was my responsibility not to give that ball away."