Steven Gerrard admitted he was ready to give Luis Su�rez an ear-bashing when he let fly from 45 yards to complete his stunning hat-trick against Norwich City.

The Uruguayan's audacious lob from level with the edge of the centre circle set the seal on Liverpool's 3-0 win at Carrow Road.

'That's the type of player he is, but I still had confidence he could get the third,' said Gerrard. 'It was just on the tip of my tongue to give him a telling off but then he did that.

'He's a special player, his movement's first class and it makes my job as a midfielder easier alongside him. He's a top player, one of the best in the world on his day, and today was his day.

'It was great finishing and we as a team could have had more.'

The Reds had the better of a largely low-key encounter played out in torrential rain.

Gerrard added: 'It was a good team performance, we beat a very good team – Norwich press well and they're difficult to beat.'

The match raised Liverpool's confidence ahead of next Saturday's FA Cup final against Chelsea.

But Gerrard continued: 'We've got to beat Fulham (on Tuesday) first, we'll take each game as comes and we want to go into the cup final in good form.

'We're excited, we've done really well in the cups this year and we deserve to be in the final but it would be silly and naive to focus on the final with league games to come.'