Rafael Benitez praised the captain's performance of Steven Gerrard after his dramatic late goal earned Liverpool a place in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.

Gerrard's powerful, swerving, stunning strike four minutes from the end of a sensational match ensured Liverpool earned the 3-1 win over Olympiakos Piraeus they needed to progress after falling behind to Rivaldo's first half free kick.

The win was reminiscent of Liverpool's defeat of St Etienne in a European Cup quarter-final in 1977 when they came back from a 1-0 first leg deficit to win 3-1 at Anfield and went on to become European champions for the first time shortly afterwards.

That night has gone down in Anfield history and the stirring fight back against the Greeks will long be remembered too.

"Steven's was a very important goal and so was his presence,", Liverpool's Spanish coach said.

"He can play either side of the pitch or in the middle and he can influence the game in all parts of the pitch. I have said to him he has freedom because he has so much talent and is so important to us."

Gerrard was widely quoted in the morning papers as saying the last thing he wanted was to wake up on Thursday morning and find Liverpool out of the Champions League and in the UEFA Cup.

That did not happen because of his 86th minute screamer and because substitutes Florent Simana-Pongolle and Neil Mellor both scored soon after coming on to turn the match around.

"When we made the changes we scored quickly and played with the right mentality and confidence," Benitez added.

"We knew we had to score three goals in the second half and I told the players to remember we scored four goals against Fulham in the second half this season."

Olympiakos manager Dusan Bajevic was upset his team had been left with just the UEFA Cup to play for after winning three games, but conceded they had been beaten by the better team.

He said: "Liverpool were faster stronger and better than us and when we conceded so early in second half there was a fear they would come back at us.

"If we held the lead for a little longer we could have done something. But this is the worst we have played for ages. We could not get out of our own half.

"We are bitter that with ten points we have not progressed in Europe."

Rivaldo gave Olympiakos the lead in the 27th minute when his free kick went through the Liverpool wall -- the first time Olympiakos had scored a competitive goal in England.

Sinama-Pongolle drew the sides level two minutes after coming on as a half time substitute with a close range finish and Mellor set up an exciting finale by netting a rebound with ten minutes left.

The substitute striker then headed down for Gerrard to unleash a fierce drive past keeper Antonios Nikopolidis and guarantee Liverpool a place in the last 16.