Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson hailed Rafael's goal in victory at Liverpool.

It took Steven Gerrard's opening goal to spark United into life, and the boss was full of praise for Rafael's superb leveller, and the nerve shown by Robin van Persie, scorer of the match-winning penalty.

"[Rafael's goal] got us out of the mire," he said. "It was a fantastic goal, a good bit of football and it put us in the position where we didn't need to panic and worked our way through the rest of the game. It wasn't easy for him [van Persie], but he's taken it well, just the way I envisaged he would take these penalties. When he was at Arsenal, either side he would thunder them home. [Pepe] Reina's had a good attempt, he got a hand to it, but the power of the shot has made it safe."