Rafael Benitez praised the contribution of captain Steven Gerrard after his 30th Champions League goal secured Liverpool's passage into the knockout stages of the competition last night. The midfielder's first-half header against Marseille ensured victory at Anfield but the performance was far from convincing.

"Gerrard is a very, very good attacking midfielder, a very important player for us and his goal proved this," said Benitez last night. "It is really important that we qualified for the next stage; we won and now we can approach the final game in a different way without any pressures.

"It was a strange game, we scored and controlled it, but they attacked and we were left to hit on the counter-attack.

"We could not find the final pass. The game was too open against a team with pace and ability."

"They came to attack and had three strikers and two more just behind. To contain five players with pace and ability is not easy.

"Our final pass, though, to (Fernando) Torres was too quick. We must work on that but the main thing was to win and to qualify, and we are very pleased."

Marseille boss Erik Gerets was pleased with his side's performance, and said: "We could have come away with more, we had problems in the first 20 minutes but after that we played a good game and got into it. We had chances, and it was a good fight until the end.

Uefa will investigate an incident which saw Gerrard pelted with missiles thrown from the Marseille fans' section as he waited to take a corner in the first half.

Uefa have confirmed the incident will be included in Portuguese referee Olegario Benquerenca's report as well as the report from Uefa delegate Svein Johannessen.

A Liverpool spokesman said: "The Uefa delegate is aware of what happened to Steven and it is now in his hands."

A spokesman for UEFA at the game said: "The incident will be included in both the match delegate's report and the referee's report.

"Uefa are aware of what happened and any further comment will now come from them."