FIVE STAR REDS BEAT SINGAPORE
Liverpool recorded their first victory of the pre-season campaign
with an emphatic 5-0 win over Singapore on Sunday afternoon.
Andriy Voronin put the Reds into the lead on the stroke of
half-time with a deflected shot from distance before Albert Riera
increased the visitors' advantage courtesy of a close-range volley
shortly after the restart.
Krisztian Nemeth helped himself to a late brace, with a Fernando
Torres goal sandwiched in between as Liverpool went goal crazy in
the Far East to claim the Lion Cup.
A pre-match rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone rang out inside
the Singapore National Stadium before the game got underway, with
the away side sporting their stylish new black away strip.
Rafa Benitez took the chance to partner young centre-back Mikel San
Jose with Jamie Carragher and handed Daniel Agger a role at
left-back.
After a tentative opening, Ryan Babel had the first opportunity of
the game when he nodded David Ngog's cross goalwards, but Singapore
goalkeeper Hassan Sunny was able to make a comfortable save.
Noh Alam Shah saw a low strike blocked by Diego Cavalieri on a rare
sortie forward from the home side, though Ngog was inches away from
breaking the deadlock at the other end when he sent a looping
header narrowly wide of the far post from Andriy Voronin's
centre.
The young French striker was looking lively and he was unfortunate
to see a shot on the turn deflected over the bar by Baihakki
Khaizan on the half hour mark, after some excellent link-up play
involving Yossi Benayoun.
For all their possession, the Reds were struggling to break down a
stubborn Lions rearguard.
However, the visitors finally opened the scoring in first-half
stoppage time when Voronin's low drive from 25 yards took a
deflection off Daniel Bennett to beat Sunny and put Liverpool into
a well deserved lead heading into the break.
Benitez made three changes during the interval, with Peter Gulacsi,
Emiliano Insua and Riera replacing Cavalieri, Mikel San Jose and
Babel.
The Reds started the second period quickly and Benayoun clipped an
attempt just over the bar from inside the box prior to Riera
doubling Liverpool's advantage.
Mascherano's deep cross from the right picked out the Spain winger,
who chested the ball down and drilled an unstoppable volley beneath
Sunny on 54 minutes.
The Reds opted to make wholesale changes on the hour mark, with
Torres taking to the field, much to the delight of the local fans
who cheered his every touch.
It wasn't long before Liverpool furthered their lead. Substitute
Dirk Kuyt pounced on a wayward header before crossing for Nemeth,
who dispatched a clinical shot into the bottom corner from 12
yards.
With just under 15 minutes remaining, Xabi Alonso was handed his
first-run out of pre-season after recovering from the ankle injury
that had kept him out of the clash with Thailand.
Moments later, the visitors made it four and it was the goal the
whole stadium had been praying for as Torres got his name on the
scoresheet.
Kuyt was again the provider, racing into the box from the right and
squaring across goal to give the Reds' No.9 the simple task of
tapping home from close-range.
The Dutch ace made it a hat-trick of assists on 83 minutes when he
directed Agger's pass into the path of Nemeth, who headed beyond
the Lions' replacement custodian Lionel Lewis to make it 5-0 and
put the seal on a fine evening's work for Liverpool.
