Gerrard claims record in Euro win

In the very same city where a previous Liverpool captain etched his name into legend, Steven Gerrard, Graeme Souness's heir in both title and deed, created his own piece of history to underline further his place in Anfield folklore.

Souness is still remembered in the Romanian capital for a display of incredible grit and fortitude in the face of naked hostility from the players of Dynamo Bucharest who were hell-bent on exacting revenge on the Scotsman for an uppercut that broke their own captain's jaw.

Gerrard's achievement was to take his place in the record books as the highest-scoring British player in Europe as Liverpool made it into the last 16 of the Europa League, having survived a minor scare against Unirea Urziceni. Gerrard's goal was his 33rd in European competition, enough to edge him one ahead of Alan Shearer.

From a team point of view, it ensured that Liverpool had struck three times in a single game for the first time in five months and snuffed out any lingering hopes that Unirea might have had of becoming only the third club to overturn a first-leg deficit against the Anfield club.

For Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, the achievements of his star player continue to dovetail with the aspirations of the collective. "It's really good and positive for him and the club," Benítez said. "It also shows that as a club we are playing a lot of games in Europe and hopefully we can play more games this season and he can score more goals. It is an historic club and to have a record like this is massive for him, but it is massive for the club, too, because it means it recognises our achievements in playing so often in Europe. "We have that tradition and we are proud, and we want to continue to give him more chances in Europe this season by going as far as possible."

Gerrard said: "It's always nice to break records from a personal point of view. I've been working really hard to get back among the goals, but the most important thing was to get through to the next round."

If Liverpool are to go far in the Europa League, a competition they had no desire to enter, but which is now their remaining shot at silverware, the likelihood is that they will have to do so without Martin Skrtel who departed the pitch on a stretcher with a suspected broken foot, with Benítez claiming that the defender was the victim of a cynical challenge.

"At this moment we don't know, but it could be bad news about Martin Skrtel," Benítez said. "He will have a scan on Friday, but it was a bad tackle."

It was the only bad news for Liverpool on a night when the early indications were that they could find the inauspiciousness of both competition and surroundings too much for them.

When Bruno Fernandes became the latest beneficiary, but equally the first in some time, of lax defending at a set-piece, the portents were not good. Twelve months to the day since they triumphed over Real Madrid in the Bernabéu, another, much less vaunted, opponent dressed in all-white was threatening to make it the most unhappy of anniversaries.

It took a brilliant goal from distance by Javier Mascherano to dispel such fears. Once the Argentina player had equalised - and, perhaps more importantly, registered an away goal, the balance of the tie shifted entirely in Liverpool's favour and though they had to survive a couple of hairy moments, their passage to the next round became more comfortable with every passing minute.

"We showed character," Benítez said. "We knew it could be a difficult game because the pitch was very bad, and to concede the goal was a bad start. We needed to be calm."

Liverpool's only previous defeat on Romanian soil had come in 1966 when Petrolul Ploiesti recorded a famous 3-1 win that is still recalled with such fondness in these parts that the occasion was the subject of a banner unfurled by the Unirea fans that was intended to inspire their own team to scale similar heights.

Their chances of doing so all but ended when Ryan Babel started to repay his manager's rediscovered faith in his talents with a goal that owed everything to an instinctive piece of control in a crowded penalty area.

On other nights the interventions of Babel and Mascherano might have been the highlights, but, as he has done on countless occasions before, it was Gerrard who stole the show in Bucharest, just as Souness, his predecessor, had in 1984.

Unirea Urziceni (4-1-4-1): G Arlauskis - V Maftei, G Galamaz (sub: E Mehmedovic, 27min), B Fernandes, V Bordeanu - S Paraschiv (sub: R Vilana, 56) - M Onofras (sub: A Semedo, 61), R Paduretu, I Apostol, S Frunza - M Bilasco. Substitutes not used: D Tudor, R Rusescu, E Nicu, L Marinescu. Booked: Onofras, Fernandes, Arlauskis.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina - J Carragher (sub: M Kelly, 61), M Skrtel (sub: S Kyrgiakos, 66), D Agger, E Insúa - Lucas Leiva, J Mascherano - Y Benayoun (sub: F Aurélio, 77), S Gerrard, R Babel - D Ngog. Substitutes not used: D Cavalieri, A Aquilani, F Torres, D Kuyt. Booked: Babel, Mascherano.

Referee: S Johannesson (Sweden).

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.