Cisse began the healing process over Michael Owen's bargain-basement move to Real Madrid with a well-taken first goal in Liverpool colours before Jermain Defoe levelled for the home side when both the £14m man and Czech international hitmaqn Baros were back in the changing rooms.
Benitez said: "The first half was good. We had lots of opportunities and I was very happy.
"The second half was more difficult for us because they played more forward balls and we got tired. When teams play long balls, it means you have to go backwards to recover possession and we got a bit tired doing that.
"That's why I took our two strikers off during the second half. I wanted us to press their defenders more and I thought Cisse and Baros were getting tired.
"They will maybe disagree, but my opinion was they were tired."
