Rafael Benitez has revealed that Peter Crouch cemented himself as the Spaniard's number one summer target when he starred for Southampton in Liverpool's most embarrassing defeat of the last Premiership campaign.

Crouch scored in the 2-0 win over Liverpool in January - four days after Benitez had been mauled by the critics for his team selection in the FA Cup defeat at Burnley. It was the worst week of Liverpool's domestic season, and few would have believed that five months later they would be European champions.

Now Benitez has snapped up Crouch for £7 million and it has been confirmed by Uefa that the 24-year-old is eligible to play in Tuesday's Champions League second qualifying round first-leg away to Lithuanian champions Kaunas.

The rules are different in qualifying ties to the group stages. In the major part of the tournament, a squad has to be named before the first group match and cannot be changed until that stage if the competition is completed. But in qualifying rounds, a player can be added to a squad if he is registered 24 hours before the first-leg.

So Crouch will make his full Liverpool debut in Kaunas on Tuesday, with Benitez hoping his new signing can do the same sort of damage to the Lithuanians that he did to Liverpool last season.

The Spaniard said: "We had trouble controlling him last season. It was the first part of last season when I first noticed Crouch.

"I saw some videos of him in action and I immediately thought to myself that he was a good player. I spoke to our scouting department about him and we watched him over the remainder of the season.

"Of course in our away game at Southampton last season we had problems controlling him. We didn't play very well that day and one of the reasons for that was Peter Crouch." Benitez continued: "Another reason I like him is because he is English."

"It is always important to bring English players to the club, but only at the right price - I think we have done a good deal for Liverpool. As I've said before, he gives us different options in attack and I think he has the intelligence which is so important for a striker at the top level."

Liverpool will also be able to use Mohamed Sissoko, another recent signing, against Kaunas. Sissoko was ineligible to play against TNS on Tuesday because he had been signed between the two legs with the Welsh side. Crouch joined up with his new Liverpool team-mates in Switzerland last night.