Gerrard wins Benitez praise

Posted Friday, February 26, 2010 by PA

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez hailed the contribution of captain Steven Gerrard after he became the leading English scorer in European competition in the 3-1 victory over Unirea Urziceni.

The England midfielder scored the third goal - his 33rd in Europe to overtake Alan Shearer, who scored 30 for Newcastle and two for Blackburn.

"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," said Benitez.

"It is very good news for the club. This is an historic club with a lot of records so to have a new record is massive for him and very important to the club."

Gerrard's goal topped off a successful trip to Bucharest as Liverpool booked a last-16 encounter against French side Lille.

However, it was not as easy as it seemed as the visitors laboured in the opening 25 minutes, during which time Bruno Fernandes' header put Unirea in front with the Romanians causing plenty of problems from set-pieces.

Midfielder Javier Mascherano drilled in a 25-yard strike to settle things down and five minutes before half-time Ryan Babel showed great skill to control Gerrard's free-kick and fire home from close range, leaving the captain to put the tie beyond doubt.

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

"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."