Took their time, didn’t they? Make no mistake, this is a great result against an excellent side, and yet I feel almost disappointed. Liverpool won the match but they could have sealed the whole tie already. A two-goal advantage is more than anyone could have expected before kick-off; after the way the game panned out, it seems like the bare minimum.

Rafael BenÍtez’s side were so dominant. They left it late, but then so did the manager. When the opposition have a player sent off, you’ve got to act like a predator. BenÍtez? He pondered.

What happened when Inter Milan were reduced to ten men by Marco Materazzi’s sending-off? Liverpool started playing keep-ball. That’s the opposite of what needed to be done. When the numbers were equal early on, Liverpool were trying to do things quickly, they were trying to play long balls. With a man advantage they slowed the game down and passed it short. It played into Inter’s hands.

Inter are the best team in Serie A but too often in this country we overrate Italian football. It’s not the dominant force it was: the Barclays Premier League has overtaken it. But it’s still the case that if you get your tactics wrong, Italian sides punish you. And there’s an example close to home for BenÍtez to chew on: last season’s Champions League final. AC Milan were outplayed, but Liverpool’s 4-5-1 formation didn’t allow them to capitalise.

Turn the game into a chess match and Italian sides couldn’t be happier. Especially when they are only looking for a goalless draw, as Inter were from the moment Materazzi was sent off. With ten men and mindful of the home leg to come, they turned pragmatic.

So it was up to Liverpool to win the game after Inter decided they would do everything possible to avoid losing it. But BenÍtez is naturally cautious, so he waited too long before making his substitutions.

A defensive manager such as BenÍtez is not comfortable when the first leg is at home. He is afraid to gamble because there is another 90 minutes still to play; he’s worried about taking a risk when it isn’t absolutely necessary.

BenÍtez is much happier setting tactics when he’s certain what needs to be done, such as against Barcelona last season, when Liverpool were excellent in the Nou Camp and defensive at home in the second leg. So it took him until after the hour yesterday to bring on Peter Crouch. Too long and not enough. There is no point introducing Crouch unless he gets service, yet BenÍtez waited until there was less than 20 minutes to go before he added Jermaine Pennant. Both men should have been on together – at half-time. Instead, early in the second period, we had Lucas Leiva pointlessly sliding the ball sideways just in front of the back four.

Was BenÍtez worried about being caught on the counter-attack? You can’t think like that in a situation such as last night’s. You’ve got to believe: if we can get that first goal, another one or two might follow. You’ve got to think, we need a lead to take to the San Siro. You’ve got to figure that a goalless draw at home against a team that’s been down to ten men is a bad result.

Yet it was not until midway through the second half that Liverpool finally began to exert enough pressure. Even BenÍtez had to accept that an Inter side with only Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front – and even then he was deep – weren’t going to score. At last, balls were pumped into the box, bypassing Inter’s massed midfield bank.

When Liverpool went direct, with Crouch and Fernando Torres up front, they looked a threat. They stopped overplaying, they started to be dangerous and they got their reward. That’s a lesson BenÍtez would do well to absorb for the league campaign.