"The holding midfielders against a team as physical as Reading need to work hard, and if the team plays well it is thanks to the holding midfielders," said Benitez.
"It was really, really important for us to get three points today. There was a little anxiety in the last few minutes but I think we deserved to win today.
"At the end we had a few problems with set pieces but throughout the game we created enough chances to score more than two goals.
"It was difficult because they were well organised and sometimes we gave the ball away. But sometimes we were playing really well. When Mascherano scored his goal you could see the difference."
