A Red revival

‘The goal was important for the team, the club, the supporters and for Steven more because he is the captain and he wants to win with this club and at the end it was a very, very important goal for everyone. It was worth millions.”

The carefully expressed thoughts of Liverpool’s slightly starchy Spanish coach Rafael Benitez capture the essence of this week’s final round of Champions League group matches. And that essence is Steve Gerrard, arguably the best player in the Premiership right now.

After seeing his side come back from a goal down to beat Greek hopefuls Olympiakos 3-1 on Wednesday night, Benitez said: ‘Steven was excellent, he can play from one side of the pitch to the other. I told him he has freedom and he has talent, when you see performances like that, you see how important he is to us. He can work from end to end and it was a wonderful display.”

They’re comparing Gerrard to Real Madrid’s French master Zinedane Zidane right now and of course, Chelsea’s obese chequebook is creaking open again, such is Gerrard’s standing in the game. He very nearly went to Stamford Bridge after Euro 2004 but his family received death threats and the move to London was put off.

The fact remains that, when fit — and he often struggles with various back and knee problems — there is no better player. Gritty in the tackle, good in the air, strong box-to-box and with a lethal finish, this has been Gerrard’s week. It could yet be Gerrard’s season, though Chelsea versus Arsenal on Sunday will overshadow all this for a few days.

So what about the others? Arsenal thrashed Rosenborg 5-1 to turn hoped-for qualification for the last 16 into group-winning glory, while Chelsea (2-1 to Porto) and Manchester United (3-0 to Fenerbahce), both already through, put out reserve sides and lost. We shall find out next Friday who plays who in the first round of the knockout stages, where Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus lie in wait.

But it was at Anfield that the real gut-wrenching European action took place. And what fun it was to see the Premiership get a perfect four teams out of four through to the last 16.

With a boardroom wrangle and a ground-sharing debate going on in the background, qualification was vital for a club with a great history in Europe. Benitez said: ‘We knew before the game that it was very important for the club to gain these extra finances.

‘Now we have a gap before the next stage and we can fight for other things, but for the club this result is very, very important.

‘But I felt that the difference between the sides was really our supporters; I cannot thank them enough. I want to say thank you to the supporters, they were magnificent tonight to help us achieve this result.”

When you look back to the glory days at Anfield, when they snaffled three European Cups, there were great evenings, nights when no-nonsense English football held out against European fancy-pantsism.

But this was different. Forget the 1970s and supersub David Fairclough, think of the double supersub situation, with French kid Florent Sinama-Pongolle and local youngster Neil Mellor cancelling out Rivaldo’s free-kick opener for the Greeks. Then, just when we were all singing ‘You’ll never walk alone”, along came Gerrard with a 20-yarder that he describes as ‘one of my best ever”.

Olympiakos boss Dusan Bajevic confessed: ‘Liverpool were faster, stronger and better than us and when we conceded so early in the second half there was always the fear that they could come back at us.

‘If we had held the lead a little longer, maybe we could have done something.”

What a night. What a glorious, glorious night.