Missiles can't explode Gerrard

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez praised skipper Steven Gerrard's restraint after it appeared he was hit by missiles thrown by Marseille fans during Wednesday's Champions League clash at Anfield.

Gerrard, who scored Liverpool's winner in the 1-0 victory over the French side that booked the Reds' place in the last 16, looked to have been the target as he waited to take a first-half corner.

A Liverpool spokesman said: "The UEFA delegate is aware of what happened and it is now in his hands."

A spokesman for UEFA at the game added: "The incident will be included in both the match delegate's report and the referee's report."

It is also believed UEFA is aware the missiles came from the Marseille fans' enclosure, and any action will not involve Liverpool.

"Gerrard was really good in that incident, maybe the UEFA delegate will notice what happened. Steven did well not to react," Benitez said.

Gerrard scored his 30th European goal, and fifth in this season's competition.

"Gerrard is a very, very good attacking midfielder, a very important player for us and his goal proved this," Benitez said.

"It is really important that we qualified for the next stage, we won and now we can approach the final game in a different way without any pressures."

"It was a strange game, we scored and controlled it, but they attacked and we were left to hit on the counter-attack."

"We could not find the final pass. The game was too open against a team with pace and ability."

"They came to attack and had three strikers and two more just behind. To contain five players with pace and ability is not easy."

"Our final pass, though, to [Fernando] Torres was too quick. We must work on that but the main thing tonight was to win and to qualify, and we are very pleased."

"We knew they have good players, with pace and ability. They could be very dangerous if we did not control the ball. And that is what happened, they had space to run into and they were always a threat."

"We must improve our possession and to keep the ball and pass it better, we were giving the ball away too easily."

Marseille boss Erik Gerets was pleased with his side's performance, saying: "We could have come away with more. We had problems in the first 20 minutes but after that we played a good game and got into it. We had chances, and it was a good fight until the end."

"The only thing that disappointed me was the result."

"We produced a much better performance, we defended as a unit and the defence and midfield worked well together."

"We dominated long spells but could not make it pay. That is the difference between a top-class side and us. I came here as manager of Galatasaray a few years ago and we were 3-0 down and got back to 3-2, but still could not win."

"The Champions League is over now, but the youngsters have learned from this group. We have done well apart from one bad performance against PSV."

"We were never scared, we tried to take on Liverpool. But we lacked that certain something extra that is the difference between the top and the rest."