Rafael Benitez says he is pleased for Igor and hopes his performance on Tuesday gives him the confidence to get some consistency and put in a good run of games between now and the end of the season.
Benitez said: "Igor is a good professional he is working hard. He played well against Leverkusen and I hope he can play well for us until the end of this season.
"He is a player that needs to have confidence in himself. It is difficult when you don't play a lot of games as we have Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Didi Hamann. When he plays he tries to do things and when he has the confidence he is a good player."