Rafa's no gambler when it comes to getting it right in Europe

Not a title-clincher. Not the dawning of a new Liverpool. Not even evidence that Benitez himself has finally discovered the value of out and out width.

It was simply one game and one set of three points. The same he will get for another Anfield success over Stoke City this Saturday.

Supporters have been so exuberant over the long-awaited beating of their bitter rivals that last night was merely the French leg of the post-match celebration party.

But Benitez's typically analytical approach meant he was able to move on and bring all those high spirits crashing back to earth.

Robbie Keane, Albert Riera, Xabi Alonso and Yossi Benayoun all played varied and valuable parts at the weekend but Benitez had no qualms about leaving them out last night.

He knew keeping his two most potent forces on the bench when fully fit was a bigger risk - and he sensibly decided not to take it.

So Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard were straight back in, the latter with devastating results. After all, you need match-winners when it's a match you need to win.

That might seem a drastic assessment for a first group game of six. But the fact is, Liverpool could ill afford a similar start to last year's competition, when they had one point from their first three games.

A poor return that made the climax of Liverpool's group stages far more of a distraction than they should have been.

They hadn't lost a league game by December but the must-win clash in Marseille came in between meetings with Reading and Manchester United - in which Liverpool suffered two of their three Premier League defeats of last season. Championship challenge over before Christmas.

Avoiding a similar scenario seems even more imperative now, given that they have given a much greater indication of their title credentials already.

And with Atletico Madrid - scoring an impressive 3-0 win over PSV in Eindhoven last night - still to come twice, three points on the board to hasten qualification for the knockout stages at the earliest possible opportunity was essential.

It was done thanks to Gerrard's brilliance, getting Liverpool back in the game with a strike so good goalkeeper Steve Mandanda could only react as if he'd been wrong-footed by a deflection.

It was a timely intervention too because up until that point, Liverpool seemed to be taking their manager's instructions to forget about Saturday a little bit too literally.

They forgot about the crisp, sharp passing. The urgency in applying pressure on player and ball. And the back four should certainly have remembered that allowing players to run past them for a one-on-one meeting with Pepe Reina was not a good idea.

But after Lorik Cana capitalised on that lapse to give Marseille the lead, it was time for Gerrard to prove

Benitez right in entrusting him with a first starting appearance - that eventually lasted 68 minutes - since the qualifying second leg win over Standard Liege three weeks ago.

Just because he was sitting on the sidelines when Liverpool fought back from Carlos Tevez's early strike, doesn't mean he has lost his crown as the king of inspiring such responses.

And he reigned supreme with that stunning equaliser just three minutes after his side had gone behind and it was only a further three minutes before he was lining up the winner.

It was announced yesterday that Marseille will be European Capital of Culture in 2013.

Whether the French city will get as hysterical about some clunking giant fairground spider bringing it to a standstill as the residents of the 2008 capital did remains to be seen.

But Ronald Zubar certainly got way too over-excited over one set of gangly legs - Ryan Babel's. He wildly chopped them down to give Gerrard the chance to score his second from the penalty spot.

Last year he needed two attempts after Mandanda saved his spot-kick and he slammed in the rebound.
And it was a similar story last night as some over-fussy refereeing forced him into a re-take.

So Gerrard made the decisive interventions and it was just as well. Liverpool never hit the heights of three days ago, with Torres struggling to find his range on his return and the defence always looking as vulnerable as they did in the early stages. Although this was, in fairness, due more to the squandering of too much midfield possession than anything else.

And it took a last-gasp Reina block to prevent three points being reduced to one.

But almost a year ago, Benitez paid for the surprise selection of Sebastian Leto - a scorer for Olympiakos in the UEFA Cup last night - as Marseille sprung an even bigger one with victory at Anfield.
No such anxieties await in the group stages this time thanks to last night's line-up.

Because even when you're dealing with a Steven Gerrard still recovering from a recent double groin operation, the word 'gamble' just doesn't come into it.