Liverpool can match any team, says Henderson

Jordan Henderson says that his Liverpool are more than a match for any team in the Barclays Premier League after a 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool had twice taken the lead through Lazar Markovic and a Steven Gerrard penalty, only to be pegged back on each occasion by goals from Harry Kane and Mousa Dembele. But Mario Balotelli, a substitute, scored in the 83rd minute popped up to move the reds to within a point of sixth-placed Tottenham in the race for UEFA Champions League football and extend their unbeaten streak in the league to nine matches.

Liverpool are three points behind Arsenal in the final UEFA Champions League spot and Henderson believes that the win showed that they need fear no one in the league.

"We always feel we can beat anyone if we keep playing the way we have been," he told BT Sport. "We've got some fantastic players here so we've just got to keep working hard on the training field and getting results like that.

"We've got a little momentum, we've been playing some great stuff and we showed great character tonight."

Balotelli's first goal for Liverpool in the Barclays Premier League since his summer move from Inter Milan was met with a muted celebration from the Italian, who headed straight down the tunnel at the final whistle, but Henderson said he believed his team-mate would be happy with his contribution.

"I'm sure he'll be smiling in the dressing room," he said. "When he came on, he worked hard and got the goal and the three points for the team."

Such sentiment was echoed by Liverpool assistant manager Colin Pascoe, who felt Balotelli's strike was just reward for his efforts.

"Mario Balotelli has been working hard in training and for the last couple of weeks he's been ill so it's great that he scored the winner," Pascoe told BT Sport. "It was important to win tonight, it was a great win and we deserved it."

Pascoe, who was fulfilling Liverpool's media commitments after manager Brendan Rodgers left the stadium to catch a plane, also revealed that captain Gerrard had been withdrawn in the 68th minute due to injury.

"Steven Gerrard felt his hamstring and felt he had to come off," he said.

Mauricio Pochettino believed Spurs were worthy of a point and that the result was harsh on his team.

"We are disappointed with the result because one point would have been fair for both teams," Pochettino told BBC Sport. "It was a great game, we played well but this is football.

The players are very disappointed, sad and tired but we have to accept football is like this. I am proud of the effort and we have to look forward. The only thing we need to improve, in the first half we gave Liverpool some chances and made some mistakes. We deserved more from this game."