Kewell header tonic for Pool

Liverpool 1 Steaua Bucharest 0 (aggregate 2-1)

But their passage to the third round produced another injury scare over Michael Owen, who was taken off with two minutes left after suffering a strained thigh muscle.

Houllier believes the injury will not keep the England striker out of Sunday’s home game with Birmingham, but the club’s medical staff are concerned enough to send him for a scan first

A 1-0 second leg victory with a Harry Kewell goal had seen Liverpool edge out a difficult Steaua Bucharest in a nervy Anfield tie.

Boss Houllier and a 42,000 crowd had to sit through a tense final few minutes as the Romanians fought for the goal that would have taken the tie into extra-time.

Houllier said: “There was a sense of desire about my team, they wanted to stay in Europe and continue the experience. I cannot fault their willingness and effort.

“It was tense at the end. In the last 15 minutes you are not going to score again so we needed to do a professional job with discipline and playing safe.”

On Owen’s injury, he said: “He has a tight muscle, but I do not expect him to be out of our next game on Sunday against Birmingham”.

However, with Owen’s track record of muscle injuries, Houllier will be holding his breath until the England striker is given the all clear.

The injury is believed to be to the front of Owen’s leg and is not connected to his hamstring problems of old.

Houllier will wait for the Owen verdict, but was relieved to still be in the competition after Liverpool were pushed to the limits by Steaua.

He said: “It was important that we will still be in Europe in February when the Champions League teams come into the competition.

“It will give the lads confidence and experience. The game was a difficult one to approach. Do you go for the throat and take risks or do you defend and keep a clean sheet?

“We kept our discipline and picked them off with Harry’s goal. Do not forget we had a young team out there, they maybe lacked experience of these sort of games.

“But we have done the job, we are in the draw for the next round and we know we have beaten a very good team. They were very difficult to break down and had some excellent players,” he added.

Bucharest, who missed two glorious first-half chances, had a penalty appeal turned down and will have good cause to claim they did not have the rub of the green.

But Liverpool will not care one jot. So much has gone so wrong this term that they needed to be in the UEFA Cup third round come February to maintain their battered confidence.

After 36 minutes Steaua carved out a fine opening when Rachita’s angled ball from right to left dropped into the penalty area behind a sleeping Diao for Gabriel Bostina to send a looping header just wide.

The stalemate was soon broken at the beginning of the second half but Liverpool had to survive a penalty appeal before they took the lead after 48 minutes.

Biscan was trapped in his own box in possession and as he tried to spin out of trouble he looked to have tripped Raducanu, who was enraged at referee Florian Meyer’s disinterest.

The ball went straight down the other end and from Gerrard’s searching right-wing cross Kewell rose in the area to send a downward header into the net.

Steaua went looking for the equaliser and when Radoi’s 30-yard drive was blocked Raducanu sliced the rebound wide from 10 yards.

Owen, who had been quiet until this point, found space to stab a Kewell near post cross wide and then scampered clear to see a chip drop inches wide.

LIVERPOOL: Kirkland, Diao, Biscan, Hyypia, Traore, Diouf (Smicer 69), Hamann, Gerrard, Kewell, Owen (Murphy 89), Sinama Pongolle (Heskey 69).

STEAUA BUCUREST: Hamutovski, Radoi, Rachita, Mutica, Stoica, Dumitru, Falemi (Pitu 80), Aliuta (Paraschiv 59), Bostina, Raducanu, Oprita (Dinita 80).