Reds forced to wait on Gerrard injury

Gerrard took a painful crack on the back of his ankle from French midfielder Pantxi Sireix, the Toulouse player who spent all of yesterday's game man-marking the England star.

Steven Gerrard, left, of Liverpool challenges for the ball with Achille Emana

That was the only blemish for Reds boss Rafael Benitez after his side mastered the sauna-like conditions to secure a 1-0 first-leg victory.

Gerrard tried to carry on but was eventually replaced in the 61st minute by Mohamed Sissoko.

With Sunday's home game with Chelsea now the next clash for Liverpool to contend with in a tough opening week of three matches, Benitez would only say last night: "We will not know how Steven is until he has been seen by the medical team and the doctor.

"I was replacing him because we needed fresh legs, not because of the injury, but we do not know yet how he is."

Benitez hailed the "wonderful goal" scored by new boy Andriy Voronin that put Liverpool within touching distance of the Champions League group stages.

The Reds boss watched as his free-transfer signing from Bayer Leverkusen ensured his new club are close to the £12million prize for reaching the competition proper.

Benitez said: "Andriy scored a wonderful goal, it summed up his qualities as a very fine striker.

"He is clever, has great game awareness and gives us so many more options in attack. He can play behind a main striker, lead the line himself, or come into the attack from the flanks.

"And of course he can scored truly great goals like that. But we must not think this tie is over.

High class: Andriy Voronin hammers in Liverpool's winner

"We did a very professional job in a match played in difficult conditions. It was so hot for the players, and we were having to give them water continually.

"The referee stopped us throwing the bottles on to the pitch, the players had to come to the sidelines to drink, which was a little strange considering the conditions."

Liverpool are now expected to secure their passage through this third qualifying round tie in a fortnight at Anfield, even if Benitez was predictably cagey about the second leg.

He said: "We know they are a very good side who like to hit teams on the counter-attack, which is what they will try to do at Anfield."

Toulouse coach Elie Baup conceded his team found the searing heat and the quality of the opposition a problem.

He said: "In those conditions, it is hard to keep running and trying to create things when you are playing against a side with such experience and quality.

"Our players lack the experience of playing in this competition and they found Liverpool's ability and technical quality hard to cope with out there."