Riise wants Bellamy to stay

John Arne Riise has admitted he wants to see Craig Bellamy stay at Liverpool and the pair have put behind them the incident that marred the build-up to their Champions League victory over Barcelona.

Riise and Bellamy were involved in a row at the club's training camp where it was alleged the Wales striker had threatened the Norwegian defender with a golf club. It has emerged since that nobody was hit by a golf club, but the pair had to be reprimanded by manager Rafael Benitez.

Riise told the News of the World: "Craig is a great player and we all want great players at this club. He always works very hard for the team. It is not up to me to decide what the future is for Craig at Liverpool. My job is to focus on what I am doing for the team. But I would like to see him stay here."

He added: "It was destiny that it should be me and Bellamy who scored the goals."

He added: "We both had a tough week after Portugal but we had the courage to put all the problems behind us. Craig and I are men, we are mature, we are team players.

"We spoke about what happened but the important thing was we agreed we could put it behind us and we are happy. To score against Barcelona was great but we did it for the team not for ourselves.

"The spirit is strong between us. We knew everyone would expect us to fail after what happened in Portugal.

"But it wasn't about John Arne Riise or Craig Bellamy. It was a victory for Liverpool."