GERR IN THERE ... Steven Gerrard celebrates
after Liverpool nick a late winner
Liverpool 1 - 0 Unirea Urziceni
The Kop outfit struggled to a 1-0 victory over minnows
Unirea Urziceni at Anfield and face a tricky second leg of their
last-32 clash in Romania on Thursday. But skipper Gerro insisted:
"We are confident we can go all the way.
"And we believe we will start by winning more
convincingly against these opponents away from home. "They will
have to come out and try to beat us and hopefully we will take
advantage and kill them off.
"They were very stubborn opponents but we expected
that. "Maybe we needed to be more clinical but I think we will get
more joy against them away from home.
"We lacked five to 10 per cent in terms of being
clinical but we were patient and the goal came. We deserved
it."
Gerrard's comments were reminiscent of boss Rafa
Benitez's guarantee of a top-four finish in the Premier League this
term.
That's a boast that is looking increasingly dodgy with
Sunday's opponents, Manchester City, keeping Liverpool out of the
Champions League places.
And even the Europa League boasts clubs of the calibre
of Juventus, Roma and Valencia.
Speaking about last night's game, Benitez said: "We
could have scored one or two more goals but we kept a clean sheet
and won, so it's not bad.
"We had to be patient, and we will see what happens in
the next game. "They have to attack so maybe we will have more
space and can play in a different way."
The Reds boss felt his team would have run out
comfortable winners if Unirea keeper Giedrius Arlauskis had not
made a terrific save from Gerrard after just 26 seconds.
He added: "We started the game well. If we'd scored in
the first minute, it would have been very different."
But Unirea boss Roni Yakoov Levi claimed his team were
still capable of springing a surprise in the second leg. He said:
"We are a bit disappointed because the only time we lost
concentration they scored. "But this is still a good result to take
back to Bucharest. It is an interesting situation and we still have
a good chance."