Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Steven Gerrard is “made for the Champions League” after the club's captain scored the second goal in the victory against Inter Milan last night.

In the final minute of normal time the England midfielder picked up the ball wide on the right, cut inside and fired a low 20-yard shot which went in off the post to hand Liverpool a 2-0 advantage to take into the second leg of the first knockout round in the San Siro in three weeks’ time.

Gerrard has been criticised for not transferring his club form to the international stage but Carragher believes his team-mate always raises his game when faced with quality opposition.

“We would have been delighted at 1-0 but to get the second with a great goal by Stevie was the icing on the cake,” he said.

“He’s one of the best players in the world and I think he is made for the Champions League, when all the top teams come up against us.

“You see some of the names they (Inter) have got and he is the one that does the decisive thing at the end of the game.

“There were a lot of world class players out there on both teams and he stole the show again.”

There was pressure on the team going into the match and Carragher said that increased the moment former Everton defender Marco Materazzi was sent off in the 30th minute for a second bookable offence.

Faced with 10 men, the hosts were expected to go on and win but had to wait patiently until five minutes from time to end Inter’s resistance.

“You do (worry the breakthrough will not come) but as a defender you have to make sure the back door is closed. We can’t really get involved in what is going on up front,” Carragher added.

“It was important not to concede a goal in the home leg, especially as we were playing it first. It was a big thing on our minds at 1-0 not to let one in.”

Dirk Kuyt, the striker who had given Liverpool the lead in the 85th minute, said the victory proved the team are better than recent results suggest.

Having been dumped out of the FA Cup at home to Barnsley on Saturday, success in Europe presents the only chance of silverware for Rafael Benitez’s side this season.

“I think that is the magic of football. You lose four days ago against Barnsley when everybody is expecting you to beat them easily and you see a whole different team (against Inter) with a lot of the same players,” he said.

“We haven’t played well the last few games but we know how we have to play in the big games, especially the Champions League games, and we used that.

“All the players worked really hard as a team and we had confidence in ourselves because we know we have a lot of quality in the team.

“Everyone I have spoken to, especially the Dutch people at big clubs in Europe like AC Milan and (Real) Madrid, know how good Liverpool can be.

“We haven’t shown it the last couple of months but we still want to be there and we have a game to go.

“If we can go really far in the Champions League like last year (when they were runners-up to AC Milan) it will be great. We have the quality, we only have to show it on the pitch.

“We just want to keep looking forward and not too much in the past.”

Having gone two months without a goal, Kuyt has now scored in successive matches.

“The most important thing is to keep patient and wait for the one chance and I was really thankful I scored,” Kuyt added.

“I am really happy with that. It was a great moment. I had a difficult period behind me, now I just want to look forward now.”