Liverpool romp to revenge win
Yossi Benayoun grabbed a hat-trick in the Reds' emphatic win
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Tuesday, 06, Nov 2007 11:01
Liverpool have kept their Champions League hopes alive with an emphatic 8-0 win over Turkish side Besiktas at Anfield.
The Reds' continental campaign was plunged into trouble after they lost 2-1 to the same opposition in their previous outing, but they found the goal-scoring touch that has previously eluded them to restart their drive for the knockout stages.
Andriy Voronin and Yossi Benayoun went close before Peter Crouch, recalled for a rare start, opened the scoring after 18 minutes.
The England striker reacted quickest to a loose ball in the box and followed in his own close-range shot to slide the rebound past a sprawling Hakan Arikan.
Benayoun netted the second after a quick throw-in from John Arne Riise released Voronin down the left and his inviting cross was hammered home on the volley by the Israeli midfielder.
Although they scraped through to the interval just two goals down, the visitors disintegrated in a second half that appeared little more than a training exercise for Rafael Benitez's men.
Benayoun snapped up a rebound from Riise's shot for the third and completed his hat-trick a short time later when Arikan spilled Steven Gerrard's drilled free-kick.
The captain got on the scoresheet himself after surging onto a sublime flick from Voronin and seeing his shot cannon in at the near post via a covering defender's foot.
Ryan Babel emerged off the bench to find the net twice in quick succession as his cheeky back-heel guided a low cross into the far corner before a more fortunate seventh saw an attempted clearance balloon off his chest and loop over the stranded goalkeeper.
Crouch completed the rout with a routine header as the crowd's thoughts turned to their side's remaining group games away to Marseilles and at home to Porto.