Rafa wants more of same from Stevie

Published Apr. 28, 2010 10:11 a.m. ET

foxsports

Gerrard and his wife Alex Curran were reported to be experience difficulties with their marriage but Curran has since denied those claims. She said in an interview with OK! magazine: "There have been loads of rumours going around Liverpool saying that me and Steven have split up, that he's moved into a hotel and ridiculous things like that. This always comes up every couple of years." Gerrard produced his best display of recent months to score twice in the 4-0 win at Burnley and Benitez was pleased to see his skipper put the rumours about his personal life to the back of his mind. Now the Spaniard wants him to produce the same sort of performance in their Europa League semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid. Trailing 1-0 from last week's match in the Spanish capital Liverpool have to score and with a striker crisis at Anfield - Fernando Torres (knee) has been ruled out for the rest of the campaign while David Ngog (hamstring) and Dirk Kuyt (calf) are major doubts - Gerrard is the key player on Thursday night. "It was important for him to score with all the rumours and he was playing well," said Benitez of the midfielder's performance at Turf Moor. "I think it has been very good for the team. Now we can concentrate on our game and try to do the best, like Gerrard the other day scoring two goals. "We have a lot of belief and everyone is ready so we have to show this on the pitch. "If he is a leader on the pitch the rest of the players will follow him."