Gerrard won't take Euro semis for granted

Updated 09.16 Wed Apr 04 2007

Keywords: PSV, Premiership, Champions League, Liverpool, football, sport, Steven Gerrard, Rafael Benitez

Steven Gerrard is refusing to take Liverpool's place in the semi-finals of the Champions League for granted despite their emphatic 3-0 first-leg quarter-final win at PSV Eindhoven.

This is despite a devastated PSV boss Ronald Koeman admitting that "it is not realistic to think that we can win the tie now".

"There are still 90 minutes to play and (we will) worry about that (the semi-final) once we are there. We need to be professional" - Steven Gerrard

Gerrard overtook Ian Rush to become the five-times European champions' leading scorer in European competition when he broke the deadlock on 27 minutes before John Arne Riise's 49th-minute thunderbolt and Peter Crouch's 17th goal of the campaign put the result beyond any doubt.

The Reds skipper said: "We need to finish it off, there are still 90 minutes to play and (we will) worry about that (the semi-final) once we are there. We need to be professional."

And Benitez, who lost Brazilian full-back Fabio Aurelio to a ruptured Achilles tendon, echoed his captain's sentiments when asked whether he and his men were already looking ahead to a last-four meeting with either Chelsea or Valencia.

The Liverpool manager said: "There must be no room for complacency now. We must take the second-leg seriously and play a proper match. We must remember Istanbul, we came back from 3-0 down. We played well, it was an organised, effective performance. But we are all more concerned about Fabio."

The injury to Aurelio was the only black spot on a great team performance from Liverpool in Eindhoven.