Jordan Henderson believes he and his teammates made up for their European disappointments when they beat Manchester City 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday.
Brendan Rodgers' side faced a huge test in hosting a City side still chasing the dream of retaining their Barclays' Premier League title, but Henderson told reporters after the game that Liverpool knew how crucial achieving a good result was.
"I think we knew that was an important game," said stand-in skipper Henderson. "Especially after mid-week. We were disappointed in going out of the Europa League, so the next game was the most important one to put it right. We knew that today.
"I felt as though we did that. We defended well and showed great character to stay in the game when it went back to 1-1 and then Philippe with another fantastic goal to win the game for us.
It was Henderson who opened the scoring, finding the top-right corner with a brilliantly guided strike on his right foot, his fourth goal of the season in all competitions. But the 24-year-old, who also has 10 assists this season, was rather coy when asked about the finish.
"It was a good break and I ran forward when Raheem found me. I just took a touch inside and thought 'have a go' and thankfully it went in," he said.
The Reds now sit just two points off of fourth place, having been seven points adrift on the first day of 2015, but the midfielder insisted the Reds cannot afford to get complacement about their chances of qualifying for next year's Champions League.
"We've just got to keep going," Henderson added, when asked about Liverpool's top-four chances after the win over City. "Every game is as big as each other. We've got another big game on Wednesday against Burnley and that'll be a tough game for us, as we found out when we went there on Boxing Day.
"It'll be difficult, but today's game will give us great confidence and this is the momentum we've just got to keep building to finish strongly."