[lfc-news] "Excellent" Gerrard hailed by Benitez - PA

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PA Sport, 8 Dec 2004
'EXCELLENT' GERRARD HAILED BY BENITEZ

Rafael Benitez hailed his match-winning skipper Steven Gerrard after the
priceless goal that sent Liverpool into the last 16 of the Champions League.

Before the game the Liverpool boss had seen claims that his influential
midfielder would soon be on his way out of Anfield.

But Benitez insisted: "The goal was important for the team, the club, the
supporters and for Steven more because he is the captain and he wants to
win with this club and at the end it was a very, very important goal for
everyone.

"We knew before the game that it was very important for the club to gain
these extra finances. Now we have a gap between the next stage and we can
fight for other things, but for the club this result is very, very important.

"Steven was excellent, he can play from one side of the pitch to the other.
I told him he has freedom and he has talent, when you see performances like
that you see how important he is to us. He can work from end to end and it
was a wonderful display.

"But I felt that the difference between the sides was really our
supporters, I cannot that them enough.

"I want to say thank you to the supporters, they were magnificent tonight
to help us achieve this result."

Liverpool's comeback rekindled great memories of their European Cup past
and, in particular, the 1977 comeback at home to St Etienne when they had
lost the first leg away 1-0 but, thanks to 'supersub' David Fairclough,
achieved a 3-1 home success.

This time Liverpool had two supersubs in goalscorers Florent
Sinama-Pongolle and Neil Mellor to cancel out Rivaldo's free-kick opener.

Benitez said: "I had decided as we came off at the break one down that we
needed to change things and that we needed out substitute strikers, and
they both paid off for us."

Olympiakos boss Dusan Bajevic conceded that Liverpool deserved their
comeback win, saying: "When you are watching a game like that you do not
believe you can lose in that way. But we brought the problems on ourselves,
we did not create a chance from open play during the match.

"Liverpool were faster, stronger and better than us and when we conceded so
early in the second half there was always the fear that they could come
back at us. If we had held the lead a little longer maybe we could have
done something.

"But this was the worst we have played for a very long time. We had very
little up front and the pressure told on us in the end.

"Liverpool were just better on the night, we were under so much pressure
and were not able to get out of our half to really turn the pressure on them.

"We are bitter, with 10 points we have still not progressed in the
tournament. We did not give up but we did not lift the pressure on us.

"Liverpool's winner was a very good goal scored by a quality player who is
one of the best players around Europe at the moment."


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