Carragher credits quiet acumen of Benitez for Red renaissance

When Andre Villas Boas, Jose Mourinho's most trusted spy, flew on from Munich to Turin on Wednesday to assess the club's next Champions' League opponents, he might have been expecting to update his notes on Juventus rather than Liverpool.

When Andre Villas Boas, Jose Mourinho's most trusted spy, flew on from Munich to Turin on Wednesday to assess the club's next Champions' League opponents, he might have been expecting to update his notes on Juventus rather than Liverpool. The latter file is already a thick one after three encounters this season with New Chelsea, but the startling events over 180 minutes against the joint leaders of Serie A suggest further amendments may be necessary.

Indeed, if Rafael Benitez is likely to pull any more tactical strokes like he did in Italy, some of Boas's fabled hiding in the bushes at training grounds might be useful as well. Previous study had confirmed that Liverpool, while often lackadaisical against supposedly inferior Premiership opposition, were capable of rousing themselves for the bigger matches at home and abroad. Chelsea may have beaten them three times and Manchester United twice, but only by a single goal on each occasion; and Arsenal, like Monaco, Olympiakos, Bayer Leverkusen and Juventus, had fallen at a throbbing Anfield.

The resolution and defensive organisation evident in the Chelsea games were shown to even better effect on Wednesday, as was Benitez's tactical flexibility. Despite having shocked Juventus on Merseyside with two quick goals by ordering an early onslaught, he felt the Italians had looked exceptionally strong through the middle of their attack when they recovered, with Pavel Nedved coming in off his flank to link up with Alessandro Del Piero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The counter-measure seen in Turin was to move Djimi Traoré further inside from his left-back position. Apart from one effort by Ibrahimovic over the bar and a header against the foot of the post late on from Fabio Canavaro, Juventus were rarely close to achieving their favourite 1-0 result.

Only Gianluca Zambrotta caused any problems, which Villas Boas will have noticed stemmed from Antonio Nunez's failure to offer Steve Finnan sufficient assistance. But so dominant were Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher in the centre of defence that the sometimes less reliable Traoré was not extended. "A lot of credit should go to the manager," said Carragher afterwards. "He came up against a manager like [Fabio] Capello and came up trumps."

By the time of the first semi-final, at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday week, Nunez may well be relegated to the dug-out, with Xabi Alonso, Steven Gerrard, Djibril Cissé and perhaps Dietmar Hamann all available again. It was when the former pair were together in central midfield, with Luis Garcia ahead of them feeling the benefit, that the team looked strong in early autumn. Later on they had just recorded three successive Premiership wins over Christmas when Alonso's ankle was broken in a tackle by Frank Lampard, Liverpool's season threatening to crumple too.

"Last game against Chelsea we were really on top before he went off," Carragher said. "Passing-wise there's not many in Europe as good, and I think it's cost us a few points." The Spaniard himself, polite and unassuming, would have no truck with talk of retribution on either Chelsea for their three wins or Lampard for his uncharacteristically careless challenge: "No revenge. We just want to beat them and go to the final. I don't blame Lampard, I've spoken to him and he apologised. I've recovered well." And remarkably quickly, after at one stage being ruled out - like Cissé - for the season.

Whether the French striker has fully regained his speed across the ground will be evident before the semi-finals are over. At least his return offers another badly needed option in the European games, when Fernando Morientes cannot play. The latter must do his bit in the continuing campaign for fourth place in the Premiership, which takes Liverpool to Portsmouth on Wednesday for the sort of game that has undermined them in the past. It is vital not to lose sight of the more realistic route into next season's Champions' League amid all the euphoria of last week.

The other lesson of the Italian job - apart from the fact that it was just as well Liverpool's more offensive followers had not encountered Juventus since Heysel - was that the team now know they can cope without Gerrard. Not cope as well, but achieve a significant result based on different strengths.

As Carragher said of his great friend: "If Stevie's got a decision to make [about joining Chelsea this summer] that's up to him. Good luck to him whatever he decides, but the club will move on."

So, Boas and his boss hope, will Gerrard. In the meantime, he is in a position to deal them a devastating blow.