Lucas: That's how we can qualify
Lucas Leiva believes Liverpool's hopes of qualifying for the Europa League last 16 will be significantly bolstered if they can turn in a repeat of their five-star Swansea showing when Zenit St Petersburg visit Anfield on Thursday night.
The Reds produced one of their best displays of the season so far as they put the Swans to the sword on Sunday, with goals from Steven Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho, Jose Enrique, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge securing an emphatic 5-0 victory.
Now Brendan Rodgers' side will look to overturn a two-goal deficit when Russian champions Zenit travel to L4 later this week aiming to protect a 2-0 first-leg lead - and Lucas insists Liverpool head into the showdown in confident mood.
"We know we still have to improve a lot, but this victory will give us the confidence going into Thursday to try to get through against Zenit," he told the Liverpool Echo.
"We started this week thinking it could be a really good week for us but then we had the defeat to West Brom and then the loss in the Europa League.
"It was difficult but the important thing is that we have finished the week off in a positive way by scoring five goals and keeping a clean sheet.
"If we play like that against Zenit we'll have a good chance. We are creating a lot of chances in matches, even in Russia we created a lot.
"If we do that again at Anfield and take them this time then we'll be able to get through to the next stage.
"We will go into the Zenit game with a positive and offensive mentality but knowing that if we concede it's going to be very hard. We have to defend well on Thursday because if we concede an away goal it will be very difficult for us."
Victory over Swansea ensured Liverpool ended a run of five matches without a win and moved them up to seventh in the Barclays Premier League.
Lucas added: "It was a good performance from us all the way through. Unfortunately we couldn't score early but we kept going. We created so much and then at the end of the first half we got the penalty.
"In the second half we started really brightly and getting the second goal so quickly was very important.
"After that we just needed to make sure we controlled the game. We created a lot of chances and scored three more goals."
The result came on the back of consecutive two-goal defeats to West Brom and Zenit and Lucas admits Liverpool are still striving to find a steady level of consistency.
"It's so difficult to explain and as players you get frustrated a lot as well," he said.
"When you think we are starting to get some good momentum going we have a defeat and a setback.
"But there is still time for us to get that consistency. Our league position is not great but we must keep fighting and see what happens. If we can get that consistency then we can finish this season on a high."