The under-fire Spaniard led the Reds to a comfortable victory against the 10-man Italian champions, who are unbeaten in 23 Serie A games this season.

"I had confidence we would score because the team was playing well," he told reporters.

"We kept trying to pass the ball and create chances. We knew it could happen and scoring two goals at the end is much better.

"I am very pleased with the result, we needed to win as a team because we wanted to progress and as a manager, I am happy.

"We knew it was important not to concede. One of the main things you want is a clean sheet, it will be difficult for Inter but also they are a good team so we must be careful."

Wrong Decision

Roberto Mancini was not convinced with the referee's decision to send off Marco Materazzi after 30 minutes, a blow which had its influence on the game according to the Inter boss.

"The referee got it wrong twice," said Mancio.

"Both were tackles that were given as yellow cards. That was wrong. It was hard to play against Liverpool from then on as they prevented us from playing and stopped us being able to counter attack.