Title is United's to lose - Benitez
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez all but conceded the Premier League title to Manchester United after seeing his side slip up at Middlesbrough.
Benitez: Reds suffered shock loss to Boro Send to friend
The Reds' unbeaten 15-game league run came to an abrupt end at the Riverside Stadium as Xabi Alonso's own goal and Tuncay Sanli's 63rd-minute strike saw Boro clinch all three points for the first time since November 9.
United are now seven points better off than the men from Anfield, who have played a game more.
Asked if the title race was over, Benitez, whose side have slipped into third place behind Chelsea on goal difference, said: "Before the game, it was very difficult - after the game, it is more difficult.
"It depends on United. It will be more difficult, clearly."
Boro, who had not scored a league goal in 526 minutes of football, took a 31st-minute lead with the help of the unwitting Alonso.
The Spaniard stuck out a leg as Stewart Downing's corner sped across the box and only succeeded in turning it past goalkeeper Jose Reina.
However, there was nothing fortunate about Boro's second, Tuncay shooting across Reina and into the bottom corner from Jeremie Aliadiere's pin-point cross.
Liverpool, who had gone close through Nabil El Zhar and Dirk Kuyt before the break, squandered glorious opportunities after it with the same two men guilty of glaring misses.
And the home side might have won even more comfortably with substitute Marlon King forcing a late save from Reina and then having a goal ruled out for offside at the death.
Benitez, whose team beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium on Wednesday evening, said: "I don't want to say too much, but for me, it is very clear. In the first 30 minutes, we had five chances and you have to take your chances.
"After the own goal, we still had chances. If you want to win, you have to score."
The Spaniard denied that the club's off-field problems - his contract remains unsigned, while it has been announced that chief executive Rick Parry will leave Anfield at the end of the season - were a factor, but also revealed that his own situation could progress soon.
He said: "My advisers are in contact with the advisers of the owners, so maybe they will have a conversation and we will see if we can progress."
As Benitez headed back to the north-west to begin preparations for Tuesday night's clash with Sunderland, opposite number Gareth Southgate was celebrating one of the most significant victories of his managerial career to date.
The win lifted Boro out of the bottom three, but perhaps more importantly, increased belief that they can survive in the top flight.
Southgate said: "I am pleased for the players because they have had to endure a long period of frustration.
"But their work ethic and their togetherness over the last seven or eight weeks in particular, as we have been building towards this, has been excellent and we have got to continue that now.
"Today is a huge lift because there will be teams sitting at home watching the scores coming in and they won't have expected us to get anything today.
"It will have dragged a lot of teams back into the fight at the bottom.
"I said last week when there was still a lot of despondency, we are still in there fighting.
"We are still in the cup, we are fighting in the league and we have shown that as a group this week, the fight is very much in them, and the quality is there as well, which is pleasing to see."
Asked about Liverpool's title hopes, Southgate said: "I just think for everybody, the way United are, the strength of their squad and the way they are playing, it's going to be very difficult for anybody to catch them.
"For all of the top teams, chasing United is a formidable task at the moment."