Thursday, March 13, 2008

Gerrard Dismisses Liverpool's 'Rivals' Sniping

Rio Ferdinand did not mention Liverpool by name and indeed he wished them good luck for their tie with Inter Milan. But when the Manchester United defender commented that there had been sides who were far from great but had won the Champions League in recent years, most people at Old Trafford thought they knew at least one of the clubs to whom he was referring.

One remarkable FA Cup final apart, Liverpool under Rafael Benitez have been domestically underwhelming but the home and away victories over the Italian champions confirmed their status as one of the great sides in the recent history of the European Cup.

In the last three years, Steven Gerrard has led his side to victory against seven clubs who have lifted the trophy - Juventus, AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Marseille, Porto and now Inter - and two more who have reached recent Champions League finals.

Having seen his side counter both Inter's menace on the pitch and the hostile atmosphere of the San Siro to qualify for the quarter-finals, Gerrard reflected that Liverpool were a club who did not have to justify themselves to anyone. "In Europe we are a force, we do not fear anyone," he said. "We have got great experience. I don't want to say who we want to play, and who we don't, in the quarters but I think we can let the rest worry about us because we have a good pedigree in this competition.

"Our record in the Champions League speaks for itself but we don't have to go into the media to defend ourselves or say how good we are. People have said there are great teams who have not won the Champions League but I think our record answers that.

"We have been to the final twice in three years and have won some big games in some important stadiums across Europe, where we have produced some performances of a great European side."

The display against Inter Milan was a case in point. The leading Italian sports daily, Gazzetta dello Sport, polled its reader on the question of why a side on their way to a third successive title had failed against a team who are struggling to re-qualify for the competition.

The options included: missed chances by Julio Cruz and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, poor tactics by Roberto Mancini, who last night withdrew his decision to resign as manager at the end of the campaign, and disunity in the squad. But the main response was - Liverpool were simply too strong.

They may have been helped by the dismissals of Marco Materazzi in the first leg and his replacement, Nicolas Burdisso, in the San Siro but, tactically, Benitez's men played perfectly. "You dream of winning in places like these," Gerrard said. "We probably had more opportunities than they did. With a player like Fernando Torres, you are going to have a chance against anyone and we were pretty comfortable all night."

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