Big player signs up for bigger picture

If one thing dimmed the afterglow of Liverpool's astonishing Champions' League success two years ago, it was the protracted doubt over Steven Gerrard's future. From announcing in the press room minutes after the final in Istanbul that he could not possibly leave his boyhood club, the inspirational Whiston lad was on the verge of doing just that and heading for Stamford Bridge until family pressures forced a change of heart.

The Gerrard clan and an adoring Anfield public need have no fears this time. With a second final in three years secured, Liverpool's captain revealed that he will sign a new contract as soon as someone from the club puts a pen in his hand. Furthermore, Jamie Carragher, the other local terrace hero, will be right behind him in the queue. So, without being blinded by insularity, let's hear it for the (local) boys in this cosmopolitan age.

With one exception, the most successful foreign coaches to have made an impact working on these shores have quickly realised the benefits of encouraging native talent steeped in the ways of English football. Only Arsene Wenger, who found his Brits growing too old together on his arrival 12 years ago, has been unconcerned about it, and many Arsenal followers still feel that, for all their club's achievements, a little something has been lost as a result. Rafa Benitez would be foolish to ignore the criticisms of his departing academy coach, Steve Heighway, on the subject after a second successive FA Youth Cup victory.

It was not necessary to be watching the 2005 Champions' League final through spectacles with a red, white and blue tint to appreciate that Gerrard and Carragher were the driving forces behind the second-half revival, having been those most affected by hearing the anthems of their fellow Scousers as they sat in a distraught dressing room at the interval.

Both came out to give heroic performances underscored by knowing how much it all meant to the Mersey hordes, just as they understand better than overseas imports can the importance of derby days, Manchester United meetings and domestic cup competitions. The strength of a more recent obsession with putting one over Chelsea and Jose Mourinho is another factor that might have escaped team- mates who are less in tune with the local vibe.

No surprise then to find the pair bubbling - blubbing would have been excusable too - as the tension of another victory by penalty shoot-out slowly subsided last Tuesday night. "It's right up there beside the great moments," said Gerrard. "We've still got one massive hurdle to get over, obviously, but to beat Chelsea over two legs... they've been champions over the past two years, the players they've got - and a special manager - it's a fantastic achievement. Before the game, we were 1-0 down, they had the advantage, it showed great character from the boys to come from behind and get through to the final."

Character too was evident in the shoot-out, Gerrard admitting that the confidence with which he put his penalty away belied the nerves beneath: "It wasn't easy, mate. As a player, the worst position you can ever be in is when the manager looks at you and says you're taking a penalty. Big players have got a responsibility to step up and score.

"The way I was brought up, the person I am, I never, ever shirk away from responsibility. I'm a big player at this club so I'll stand up, if I score I score, if I miss I miss. And when you've got Pepe Reina in goal, I mean, is there a better penalty saver in the world? I don't think so."

Reina's extraordinary record is now embellishing Liverpool's equally impressive one, and on this occasion helped produce the right result. In the first leg Chelsea, successors to George Graham's Arsenal as the ultimate one-nil team, failed to take advantage of their superiority by scoring at least another goal, and it did Mourinho no credit to pretend that his was the more positive side in the second game; at one point in extra time, they gained a free-kick deep in Liverpool territory and sent precisely three players forward.

Carragher could not resist a laugh and a little dig when told that the opposing manager thought Chelsea were the better team: "Well, I don't think [Roman] Abramovich will think that. If you've been at Chelsea three years and spent all that money and not made a Champions' League final, he may be in trouble. That's three years running we've beaten them in a semi-final [two Champions' League, one FA Cup] and hopefully we'll go on to win the trophy like we've done the last two."

In combining with Liverpool's unlikely goalscorer Daniel Agger to subdue Didier Drogba, who had been the key figure in the first leg, Carragher gave a performance to be proud of. "I know people go on about Drogba in the first game," he said, "but he's probably the best striker in the world at the moment and he's going to cause you problems, that's part of football. A striker is allowed to get the better of you sometimes. But hopefully we did our job. That's six Champions' League games against them and we've only conceded one goal. We didn't really deserve it in the first leg, we didn't really do ourselves justice, and I think you get what you deserve in life and in football."