Jamie Carragher has hailed Steven Gerrard as one of the best players in the world - and puts the England midfielder alongside Kenny Dalglish in the list of Liverpool greats.
Gerrard inspired Liverpool to a 4-0 thrashing of Marseille to secure a place in the Champions League knockout stage - a feat that had appeared impossible earlier this season, after only one point was secured from their first three European games.
Carragher told the Liverpool Echo: "He's definitely one of the best players in the world. You look at Kaka and (Lionel) Messi, but they probably play further forward.
"For me, he'll go down alongside Kenny Dalglish as one of the greatest players ever to have played for Liverpool - and at the moment he's probably in the top four or five players in the world."
Gerrard opened the scoring in the Stade Velodrome and in doing so overtook Michael Owen's record for goals in Europe - and also became the first Liverpool player since John Aldridge in 1989 to score in seven successive matches.
Liverpool will face tough opponents in the last 16 - they will be drawn against AC Milan, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Barcelona or Seville but Carragher is not daunted.
He added: "We'll be a big game for anyone as well, don't forget. When you're in the Champions League you play the best teams in Europe.
"It's good players and the top teams in the best stadiums. But if you want to progress, you've got to beat the best."
Carragher added he does not have "a clue" whether the result eases the pressure on manager Rafael Benitez.
"That's not up to us," he said.
"We just get on with playing and at the moment we're doing all right - and we just hope to keep it going."
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