Gerrard ready for big clash

(GSM) – Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes his team are ready for the big clash with Atletico Madrid next week and confident about his team reaching the Europa League final.

Diego Forlan struck the only goal of the Europa League semi-final opener on eight minutes to make it advantage Atletico going into the Merseyside return next Thursday.

Gerrard accepts he and his teammates will have to up their game – but he is confident they can still reach the final in Hamburg.

“We’re disappointed with the result. The idea was to come here and try to get an away goal, to try and pinch a win. After this result you’d probably say Atletico are slight favourites,” Reds’ skipper told the Liverpoolfc.tv.

“But we’ll have the Anfield crowd behind us next week, so Atletico will be a man down and if we get the first goal then the place will erupt. We’ll see if we can get out of the blocks a bit quicker.

“It’s not the ideal result but it’s not the worst. We feel we can turn it around – we’ve done it before,” he added.

Skipper continued, “We had a couple of half chances but they got out the blocks better and got a goal at a good time. We reacted okay and got back into the game. We weren’t at our best.

“This was a game of very few chances but I think it’ll be more exciting next week with the supporters behind us. If we get the first goal it could be a big, big night,” he explained with confidence.