Lucas Leiva referenced a recent tribute he posted about Steven Gerrard as he attempted to summarise another decisive display from the Liverpool captain in the FA Cup on Monday night.

The Reds progressed to the fourth round of the competition, where they will host Bolton Wanderers, thanks to a 2-1 win over AFC Wimbledon at Kingsmeadow, on an evening when Gerrard grabbed both of the goals.

When the captain announced on Friday his intentions to depart Anfield in the summer after 17 glittering years in the first team, words of praise poured in from around the footballing world.

Lucas took to Instagram to post about the skipper, writing: "His talent is evident on a weekly basis but I have had the absolute privilege of working with him day in, day out for almost eight years."

And as he stood in the tunnel having witnessed Gerrard strike twice and conjure a particularly sublime second to down the Dons last night, Lucas could only revert to his own words in appraisal of a hard-fought No.8-inspired win.

"As I said in my statement, my small tribute that I did for Stevie, his qualities are there to see week in, week out," he told Liverpoolfc.com. "Today that was the case again. He scored two fantastic goals and got us through.

"We knew it was going to be a hard game. [In the cup] away from home it's always hard. But we played with a lot of intensity and commitment. At times we didn't keep the discipline of our shape.

"In the second half we controlled it better and we could score the goal. But we won. That's what we wanted and now we can concentrate on the next game."

Gerrard struck after just 12 minutes in the match, hurtling onto Javier Manquillo's centred pass to score with his head and thrust Liverpool into the lead; however, Adebayo Akinfenwa levelled proceedings prior to the interval.

The game did not cease to be a contest in the second half, but thanks to Gerrard's curling, dipping free-kick, the Reds were able to secure a safe passage to the next round of the competition.

Expanding on his analysis of the side's tactical approach, Lucas explained: "We probably didn't keep the position of the team and the shape of the team like we normally do.

"In the second half, we adjusted that and kept the ball a lot better and we could have scored more goals on the counter-attack. There are a lot of things to learn, but we won and we are through to the next round.

"It's not my first game like this in the FA Cup. In Brazil as well, we used to play in these kinds of games. You just have to have the right attitude and make sure you win the game. That's what we have done tonight. We're in the next round."

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