Centurion Carragher takes it all in his stride

Quizzed about how he might fill his leisure hours after hanging up his boots, the former England defender replied: 'I will still wear the colours — it's just that it will be a scarf instead of a shirt.'

Others may hanker after a top coaching post or angle for an opening in the media, but not the player known universally as 'Carra'. For now, at least, he will happily settle for being a fan.

Loyalty can seldom have been expressed as forcibly as in Bootle -born Carragher's continuing allegiance to his home club, though Rafa Benitez may be in danger of stretching it to breaking point with his latest tactical tinkering.

After toiling long and hard to shake off his jack-of-all-trades tag and establish himself as master of one, Carra finds himself back where it all started 11 years ago.

As a fresh-faced youngster eager to impress, three months into his first pro contract, he was more than happy to fill in at right-back, as substitute for Rob Jones in a Carling Cup tie against Middlesbrough.

The appeal has faded somewhat over the years, though, and he was evidently aghast at having to revert to the same right-sided role in last month's Anfield win over Sunderland.

In much the same way as his friend and fellow Anfield icon Steven Gerrard used to bristle at being shunted out to the right of midfield, Benitez's latest positional ploy has done little to endear him to Liverpool's longest-serving player.

With his 30th birthday behind him, and his legs inevitably slowing down, Carragher could do without the threat of being exposed to pace down the wing.

Stubborn as ever, Benitez rarely makes allowances for personal considerations and, sure enough, the ever-faithful Carra started his record 100th European appearance in the role he likes least.

He surely deserved better, after becoming the first Liverpool player to chalk up a European century, leaving behind such luminaries as Sami Hyypia (91), Ian Callaghan (89), Gerrard (87) and Tommy Smith (85).

Just as you can scarcely accuse Benitez of bowing to sentiment, though, it is almost unheard-of for his judgment to be called into question on these big European nights.

He gets it right more often than not, and, on the evidence here last night, there could be no faulting his conviction that Carragher would give sounder cover than any of Liverpool's more recognisable right-backs.

Inwardly seething Carra may have been, but the exterior was the usual model of steely professionalism as he bit into an early tackle that sent Julio Cruz and the ball thudding into the advertising boards, and followed up with another typically sure challenge on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Forsaking his true position to accommodate the relatively unsung and untried Martin Skrtel will have done little to appease him but, as usual, any sense of grievance was put firmly aside once he left the dressing room and prepared to battle for a quarter-final place.

There has always been a school of thought that Carragher may lack the physical stature to be a top-class centre-back, but few strikers have embarrassed him in the air.

Ibrahimovic certainly wasn't about to, for all his height advantage, as Carragher matched him for one early cross, then denied him in another key aerial duel on the stroke of half-time.

Liverpool's 3,500-strong travelling support might have imagined Anfield would take some beating for generating noise on a major European occasion, but the decibel count was every bit as high as a deafening din bounced round the steep banking at either end of this magnificent stadium.

Not that there was much evidence of any Liverpool player being unnerved by such prolonged and partisan support. Quite the opposite, in the case of Javier Mascherano.

As further evidence that Benitez can pick a player, as well as devise a winning formula — in Europe, at least — he saw Mascherano turn his diminutive frame into a one-man barrier that repelled wave after wave of Inter attacks.

The Liverpool manager has just paid £19million to turn his loan into a permanent move, and there are those who feel the fee was excessive for a midfield spoiler. Seeing him spoil Inter's hopes of a quarter-final place suggest it might be money well spent, after all.