He wasn’t wrong, with chances flowing at both ends of an absorbing encounter, the outcome of which remained in doubt until the final kick.

The exertions against United had prompted Benitez to make five changes from the team that defeated United, Andrea Dossena replacing the injured Fabio Aurelio at left-back while Lucas Leiva made his first outing of the campaign at the expense of Xabi Alonso.

Some of Liverpool’s players were disrupted in the early hours of yesterday morning by a 2am fire alarm at their hotel.

They had already received a Champions League wake-up call with a narrow squeeze their qualifying tie against Standard Liege last month.

But that didn’t prevent them beginning the group campaign in sloppy fashion once more by conceding the first goal.

Although Mamadou Niang had shot over from the angle after outsmarting Liverpool’s attempts to play offside – a warning the visitors should have heeded – it was Benitez’s side that were in the ascendancy during the first quarter.

One flowing Liverpool move ended with a Kuyt pass in to Babel, whose first touch took him cleverly away from the defender but second blasted the ball wastefully over from 12 yards.

Another Kuyt lay-off was then met by a low Gerrard drive turned behind by Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, and from the resultant corner a Martin Skrtel flick was headed over at the far post by a stretching Torres.

A Liverpool goal seemed inevitable, yet it was Marseille who scored first midway through the half when Benoit Cheyrou – brother of Bruno – lofted a fine pass over the top of the visiting defence for Cana to race on to and slot underneath Reina. But within eight minutes Liverpool were ahead thanks to Gerrard’s quickfire double.

The first goal, on 26 minutes, was a peach. Alvaro Arbeloa found Kuyt down the right, who fed the ball inside for Gerrard to meet with a first-time right-foot shot that curled beautifully over Mandanda into the top corner.

Then a long Jamie Carragher pass found a rampaging Babel after a misjudgement by Marseille centre-back Ronald Zubar, who compounded his error by then upending the Liverpool man inside the area

Gerrard outwitted Mandanda to score at the second attempt from the spot after his initial successful effort was chalked off for encroachment by Kuyt.

Gerets made two attacking substitutions and it helped Marseille work their way back into proceedings after the interval. Bakari Kone sent an acrobatic volley wide, Reina was in the right place to clutch Vitorino Hilton’s header from a corner and substitute Karim Ziani shot over from a good position.

Babel should have made the game safe for Liverpool 16 minutes from time when, after substitute Albert Riera’s low cross was deflected into his path inside the six-yard area, Mandanda pulled off an admittedly fantastic save.

Babel, operating as a lone striker with Torres substituted, then hit the post, a miss that almost proved costly when Niang headed wide from eight yards and then blasted wastefully at Reina with practically the last kick of the match.

Liverpool, though, held on and were ultimately grateful for their ever-ready skipper Gerrard.