UK: SOCCER - Liverpool capitain Steven Gerrard says he will sign new Liverpool contract as club prepares for Champions League final

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says his team are confident of success ahead of next week's Champions League Final in Athens and reveals that he is close to agreeing a new contract with the club. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard on Tuesday (May 15) said he would sign an extension on his contract within days. The England midfielder is preparing for the Champions League final against AC Milan in eight days' time and would like to sign his new deal before the game in Athens. He said: "I'm ready to sign anytime, as soon as the contract is put in front of me I'll sign it." He was speaking to reporters at the club's Anfield ground on Tuesday (May 15) ahead of their team's departure on Wednesday (May 16) to a training camp in Spain. The team travel to Athens five days later. The England midfielder also responded to recent disparaging comments by AC Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso. The pugnacious Italian ball-winner told reporters that Liverpool was an inferior team to the Manchester United side beaten by Milan in the semi-finals. Gerrard said: "I think the Milan players are entitled to their opinion but I don't think our players are really interested in what's coming out of the Milan camp. "What's important to us is that we prepare right and that the Liverpool team that have been in Europe all season turn up in Athens and if that team turns up Milan are in for a really difficult game." Gerrard added that he and his team-mates wanted to return from Athens as "heroes." He said: "We as players don't want to come back from Athens upset and with regrets that we haven't brought the cup home. We want to make history, we want to be heroes and come home winners. During your career to play in one final and win one final is absolutely magnificent, so to do it twice would be really special, you know, that's the plan." Opponents AC Milan are slight favourites for next Wednesday's (May 23) match, but will be well aware that this was also the case when the two teams met in the final in Istanbul. In that epic game, Milan squandered a 3-0 half-time lead before losing in a penalty shootout. But Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez refuted suggestions that his team were favourites. He said: "It will be really difficult because AC Milan is a good team, they have maybe more balance than two years ago and they have enough quality, they are very strong in the middle of the field, they are strong in defence, and with more experience. It will be more difficult but we will try to not make the same mistakes we made, we started doing in the last game (the 2005 final)." Liverpool are using their five-day trip to Spain to acclimatise to the humid south European climate and to help boost team morale. Ironically the last time Liverpool visited Spain, in February, the team was beset by controversy. Liverpool forward Craig Bellamy featured on the front pages of the British newspapers when he attacked team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club after a row in a Barcelona nightclub. Days later Liverpool carved out a hugely impressive 2-1 win in Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium. Bellamy made light of the incident on Tuesday, saying: "If we get the same sort of result as we did against Barcelona then some of the boys have been saying 'we'll happily do it again', but it's one of those at the end of the day you (the press) make more of it than it was."

ITN Source | May 16, 2007

Tags:. .soccer. .opinion. .absolutely. .steven. .confident