Head must rule heart, Benitez warns Gerrard

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez told Steven Gerrard to use his head rather than his heart in high tension matches after the Reds’ captain was sent off in their 3-1 victory over Everton.

Gerrard was dismissed after receiving two yellow cards inside 60 seconds in the highly-charged 203rd Merseyside derby – the second time he has been sent off in this fixture.

The game was littered with cards while Everton substitute Andy van der Meyde was shown a straight red for elbowing Xabi Alonso with 18 minutes left.

In the end referee Phil Dowd dished out 11 cautions and Everton, with seven, will now face a Football Association investigation.

But it was Gerrard’s early exit – cautioned for kicking the ball away and the cutting down Kevin Kilbane – which concerned Benitez most.

“We must learn, Steven and all the players, that you can play with the brain as well as the heart,” he said.

“It is important in every game. Steven is truly disappointed but happy for the team.

“He knows it created a difficult situation for the team and we must learn for the future.

“He gives to us a lot of things, he plays with passion but in this type of game you need to be calm. Okay, we made a mistake but we must learn for the future.”

Even so, Liverpool’s 10 men produced a stirring display to take their goalscoring tally 18 in their last four matches and are not giving up on second spot.

A Phil Neville own goal and excellent strikes from Luis Garcia and Harry Kewell – a cracker from 25 yards – maintained Liverpool’s grip on a game in which Tim Cahill briefly pulled it back to 2-1 with a header from Leon Osman’s corner.

But this result will be a severe embarrassment for Everton who had high hopes of a European qualification after just one league defeat since Christmas.

They rarely got themselves into a game which should have been theirs for the taking after Gerrard’s early departure.

Everton manager David Moyes admitted: “That was a missed opportunity. Against 10 men we should have taken control.

“We were doing fine until we conceded an own goal on the stroke of half-time and then another goal two minutes after the break.

“All we had said at the break was of no use, we were suddenly 2-0 down having been looking forward to playing against 10 men for the final 45 minutes.”

A minute before half-time Liverpool found themselves ahead when Xabi Alonso’s near-post corner was headed into the far side of his own net by Phil Neville.

And just 99 seconds into the second half they were remarkably two goals to the good.

Jose Reina’s huge clearance down the right was flicked on by Peter Crouch to allow Luis Garcia to clip the ball over Gary Naysmith and skip round the Scot before lifting a neat effort over Richard Wright and into the net.

Everton clawed a goal back after 61 minutes when Osman’s corner from the left was met by a soaring Cahill to head in off the far post.

Wright made a fine save to his left to keep out a Kewell effort before the game was reduced to 10 aside after 74 minutes when Van der Meyde was sent off for catching Alonso in the face with his elbow as the pair contested a high ball.

Liverpool sealed the points when Steve Finnan fed Kewell some 25 yards out and the Aussie casually launched a dipping drive into the top corner.