Babel revealed earlier in the week of holding a heart-to-heart with Benitez he hopes can help salvage his Anfield career.

And, handed a successive start for the first time this campaign, this was better from the Dutch international.

Babel’s fourth goal of the season gave Liverpool a half-time advantage they were perhaps fortunate to deserve after being given an uncomfortable time by the set-piece prowess of Unirea’s Razvan Paduretu.

The Romanians showed nothing going forward during a first leg in which their defensive attitude was within nine minutes of achieving the main objective of a clean sheet but, driven by the need to score, they were far more offensive here.

Sorin Frunza had sounded an early warning with a shot that flew narrowly over before Agger – making his 100th Liverpool appearance – was required to make a good tackle to prevent Marius Onofras a goalscoring opportunity.

But from the resultant corner, Paduretu’s delivery found Fernandes unmarked in the area, the defender heading beyond Pepe Reina to give Unirea a 19th-minute lead.

Other than a Gerrard drive parried out by home goalkeeper Arlauskis, Liverpool rarely threatened until the half-hour mark when some decent possession resulted in the equaliser. A deep cross from Jamie Carragher was headed back into the danger zone by Gerrard to Babel and, although Onofras managed to partially clear, it fell to Mascherano 25 yards out to unleash a screamer that flew past Arlauskis.

The Argentine had seen a similar strike in November’s Goodison derby chalked off following a deflection off Joseph Yobo, but there was no doubt about this one.

Liverpool then just about negotiated a succession of Unirea corners, the most dangerous of which saw Padureta’s delivery from the left miss everyone before hitting an unwitting Emiliano Insua at the far post and dropping just wide.

Padureta also threatened from open play with a low 25-yard shot that Reina did well to turn behind, before Liverpool went ahead against the run of play five minutes before the interval after being the beneficiaries of some slack set-piece marking. After Gerrard floated a free-kick from the right, Babel capitalised on some loose play by Vasile Maftei to bring the ball down and shoot past Arlauskis.

It ended the game as a contest and Liverpool sought to extend their lead immediately after the break.

Gerrard shot wide and solicited another save from Arlauskis before notching his record-breaking strike in the 57th minute.

Lucas Leiva fed Yossi Benayuon and, after the Israeli danced his way into the Unirea penalty area, he cleverly played in Gerrard to sidefoot a shot through Arlauskis.

To their credit, Unirea never gave up scrapping but, with Liverpool’s defence holding strong, Gerrard and Lucas almost netted a fourth.

The two previous times Liverpool have won in Bucharest, they went on to win the competition.

With omens like that, Benitez and his players would be advised to continue taking the Europa League seriously.