Benitez hails Liverpool’s performance

(GSM) – Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was pleased with the character shown by his side in their 3-1 victory over Unirea Urziceni in Romania, which sealed a 4-1 aggregate win and a place in the last 16 of the Europa League.

The goals from Javier Mascherano from long range and Ryan Babel from close in turned things around before the interval and Steven Gerrard’s 33rd European goal after the break ensured any potential embarrassment was avoided.

“We showed character. It was a difficult game because of the pitch. We needed to be calm and do the job properly,” Benitez said.

He continued, “To play better we needed to score our goal as they were dangerous at set-pieces. I think once we scored a goal everything was easier and the second and third goals made things better. Still we had some problems but the main thing was to score; we did it and we had more control of the game.”

Benitez lost centre-back Martin Skrtel to a suspected broken foot after a second-half clash with substitute Antonio Semedo.

“At this moment we don’t know how serious it is but it could be a broken foot. That would be bad news but we will have to wait and see what happens but it was a bad tackle,” said the Spaniard.

Benitez praised Gerrard for his wonderful game; Gerard’s goal took him past Alan Shearer (with 30 goals for Newcastle and two for Blackburn) as Britain’s leading scorer in Europe.

“It is really positive for him and the club – it also means we are playing a lot of games in Europe so hopefully we can play a lot more and he can score more goals.

“It is very good news for the club. This is a historic club with a lot of records so to have a new record is massive for him and very important to the club. ,” concluded Benitez.