Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Kuyt Glad Gerrard Went For The Jugular


Dirk Kuyt is glad his captain Steven Gerrard ignored his advice to protect what they had last night after Liverpool broke the deadlock late on against Inter Milan. Gerrard wanted to double the Reds' advantage - and did so with a possibly decisive second goal at Anfield.

Dirk Kuyt scored the crucial breakthrough goal for Liverpool in the 85th minute of their Champions League home leg against ten-man Internazionale on Tuesday - then tried to persuade Steven Gerrard not to press forward in search of a second goal but to protect their lead.

The Dutchman revealed his cautious approach to uefa.com after the match, which Liverpool won 2-0 because Gerrard ignored his advice and added a last-gasp second goal.

The Serie A leaders had kept Liverpool at bay with ten-man for almost an hour after Marco Materazzi had been red-carded, and Kuyt urged skipper Gerrard to protect their slender lead.

"It was funny because I said to Stevie that maybe we have to keep hold of the ball and keep the clean sheet but he said we want to get another goal and he was right," said Kuyt. "He got a great goal and 2-0 is a great result, though we have one game to go in Milan, so it will be a tough night again."

Victory against the team hailed as the best in Europe this season was the perfect tonic for Liverpool after they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship (level two) Barnsley at the weekend. "I think that's the magic of football," said Kuyt. "You lose three days ago against Barnsley, where everybody is expecting you to beat them easily, and then tonight you see a whole different team but with a lot of the same players.

"I'm happy to score but the most important thing is that we won and beat Inter in the first match, though we still have a game to play so we'll keep focused," he added.

"We didn't play well in the last few matches but we know how we have to play in the big games, especially in the Champions League, and we used that. All the players worked really hard as a team and we had confidence in ourselves because we know we have a lot of quality. I think we showed that tonight."

Intriguingly, the only time Liverpool have ever lost a two-goal first-leg lead in European competition was, by coincidence, against Inter in the 1964/65 European Champion Clubs' Cup semi-final, a tie that was shrouded in controversy after dubious refereeing decisions in the second leg appeared to favour Inter.

However, when Kuyt, 27, was told of Inter's 4-3 aggregate win more than 40 years ago, he replied: "We just want to keep looking forward and not too much in the past."

No comments: