Benitez delighted as 'lesser' stars shine

Rafael Benitez heralded the lesser names in the Liverpool squad after his team produced what he described as their best performance of his Anfield reign during last night's 1-0 Champions League win at Deportivo La Coruna.

An own goal from Deportivo's Jorge Andrade gave the Reds the victory which puts them second in Group A on goal difference and gives them a great chance of reaching the knockout stages of the competition.

Significantly, Liverpool's win was achieved without star players Steven Gerrard, Djibril Cisse and Xabi Alonso, and came with fine performances from the much-derided Igor Biscan and Djimi Traore.

With Liverpool also heading in the right direction in the Premiership, even the normally reticent manager Benitez admitted that it was the most satisfying performance since he took charge at the start of the season.

He said: "We had problems before the game with players being injured, but what is important is that when the other players do get into the side they show what they can do.

"You must treat all the players the same, the 10 in the squad who are not playing must do the same work and feel part of the squad. Then when they do play you reap the benefits."

Victory means that if Liverpool can win in Monaco in three weeks' time progress to the next phase of the Champions League is guaranteed.

"It is all back in our own hands now, it was a great win for us and I was delighted with what I feel was the best Liverpool I have seen," added Benitez.

"We had a problem before the start, it was decided that Xabi could not play more than 45 minutes. But in the end because of the way that (Dietmar) Hamann and Biscan performed, we did not need to change things until right at the end.

"Depor are a good team and can be very dangerous. But we knew that if we hit them on the counterattack it would make them nervous and that is how it worked out."

Deportivo coach Javier Irureta said: "Liverpool played very well and we just could not break them down."