Jordan Henderson has paid tribute to the character shown by his Liverpool teammates in earning a hard-fought 3-2 win over Leicester City on Saturday.

The Reds looked set for a comfortable afternoon when they raced into a two-goal lead at the King Power Stadium, but the concession of a controversial Shinji Okazaki strike on the stroke of half-time somewhat shifted the momentum of the fixture.

The hosts subsequently put Jürgen Klopp's side under significant pressure in the second period and refused to be cowed even when Jordan Henderson added a third for his team - Jamie Vardy replying with a goal of his own inside 90 seconds.

The England striker had the chance to level things up when he was tripped inside the box by Simon Mignolet shortly after, but the visitors' Belgian 'keeper produced a fine save from the spot-kick.

And the captain was pleased with the manner in which the Reds - who went into the game having not won in their last four outings - saw off the Foxes' later attempts to restore parity.

"We dug in right until the end and showed great character to see the game out. We can do better but it's still an improvement," he told BT Sport.

"I felt we defended well for the majority of the game and obviously Si [Mignolet] made a brilliant save from the penalty. 

"We played some brilliant stuff, especially first half when we were two goals up, which we deserved. 

"I think overall we're delighted with the result in the end as well as the performance and we're looking forward to the next game now.

"We've got a quick turnaround so we'll recover well for a tough game away [against Spartak Moscow].

"This will give us good confidence going forward and hopefully we can continue to put in performances and win games."

The skipper also paid tribute to goalscorer Philippe Coutinho, whose brilliant first-half free-kick topped off a fine all-round performance.

Henderson said: "He's a fantastic player, he produces magical things at crucial times in the game and you see that today. 

"He was brilliant in midweek and he's been brilliant since he's been back in so hopefully he can keep going for the rest of the season."

Meanwhile, Reds goalkeeper Mignolet was in full agreement with his captain that his colleagues had shown a praiseworthy degree of grit in claiming three points.

And the No.22 wants to see the lessons learned from Saturday's game taken forward into future challenges.

He said: "As Hendo said, we showed character to get us through the game. 

"You know we're going to have to do that [in the future] and in that sense I think today is a big step forward.

"We have to take that forward, the way we defended, the way we fought for the three points in difficult circumstances is a big plus for us."