Auxerre 0, Liverpool 2 (Daily Post)

Jul 21 2007 By Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

THERE were mixed fortunes for Rafael Benitez’s summer recruits as Liverpool coasted to a 2-0 victory over French side Auxerre in a low key friendly in Switzerland yesterday.

Goals from Steven Gerrard on the stroke of half-time and Daniel Agger on 72 minutes were enough to seal the win at the university ground in Fribourg in warm and sunny conditions which contrasted sharply to the wet weather being experienced back home.

Yossi Benayoun was arguably the brightest of Benitez’s new signings and had a real go at Auxerre’s full-backs during his 63-minute run-out.

Andriy Voronin was quiet when paired with Dirk Kuyt in the first half and was unable to add to his two goals against familiar Bundesliga opposition Werder Bremen on Tuesday although he played his part in the opening goal.

Record £20million acquisition Fernando Torres, who partnered Peter Crouch up front after the break, looked livelier but missed a good opportunity to open his account for the club late on when he was denied by a good save from Olivier Sorin, though you suspected if the chance had come midway through the season, a sharper-looking Spaniard would have buried it.

Arguably the newcomer with the most work to do ahead of the Premier League kick-off at Villa Park on August 11 is Dutch youngster Ryan Babel.

Despite the £11.5million signing from Ajax having the most match practice out of all his team-mates throughout the summer having turned out for the Netherlands in the European Under 21 Championship, Babel struggled to make any kind of impact during his 45-minute run-out.

There’s no doubting that Babel is a hugely-talented prospect and he has time on his side but the combination of a hefty price tag, Liverpool’s burning desire to finally reclaim the title and a long-standing problem finding consistency on the flanks all mean that he can’t take too long bedding in.

The player himself rather ominously suggested that he didn’t know what his best position was after completing his big money move to Anfield so Rafael Benitez, who started Babel on the left wing before switching him to the right, will hope to solve the puzzle sooner rather than later.

Some observers rather hopefully suggested that the ‘dummy’ by Babel which led to Gerrard’s opener was a clever move but that seemed rather optimistic and could just as easily have been interpreted as the Dutchman failing to connect with Steve Finnan’s pass.

But it’s far from doom and gloom because, friendlies or not, Liverpool now head into their tour of the Far East on the back of four victories from as many matches throughout their pre-season campaign to date and it’s always useful to get into winning habits early.

As well as handing high-profile captures Benayoun and Babel with their first Liverpool starts, Benitez also fielded 19-year-old Bulgarian goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov, son of the infamous toupee-wearing Reading custodian Borislav, who is now a bigwig back in Sofia where he served as vice-president of the national football union between 2001-05.

With an inexperienced performer between the sticks for Liverpool, Auxerre sensed a chance to test him with a few long range effort but despite a couple of minor scares, there weren’t too many hair-raising moments for Mihaylov junior.

Both sides struggled to get going in the sweltering heat and Liverpool’s only opportunity before the goal, when Benayoun cut inside from the left to pick out Gerrard, who was unable to beat the keeper, wouldn’t have counted anyway as the linesman flagged for offside.

Just as it looked like the opening period was about to finish without any real incidents of note, Liverpool’s skipper came to the rescue with a well-taken goal with his left-foot.

Right-back Steve Finnan picked up the ball on the halfway line and drove forward, playing a one- two with Voronin before finding Gerrard via Babel’s ‘dummy’ and the captain slotted past Sorin from the left-hand side of the area.

Liverpool made six changes at the interval with Mihaylov, Alvaro Arbeloa, Gabriel Paletta, Jack Hobbs and Yossi Benayoun remaining from the first half.

Thankfully the game started to open up and Torres, showing he can cut inside from the flanks as well as operating in an orthodox centre-forward position, carved out a chance for striking partner Crouch when coming down the left wing but the England striker’s flicked effort was deflected for a corner kick.

At the other end, Argentine centre-back Paletta, who has yet to make an impact at Premier League level, made an important interception to deny Toifilou Maouilda when the Auxerre frontman escaped Agger’s attentions.

After just over an hour’s productive play on both wings, Benayoun was withdrawn for Moroccan Nabil El Zhar who also went on to impress.

Although he has been Liverpool’s first choice full-back for six seasons, John Arne Riise is another performer who knows that he is playing for his place at Anfield with Benitez heavily linked with a move for a new recruit – possibly Gabriel Heinze – in his position this summer.

It’s hard to tell whether the Norwegian, sporting red boots which made it look like he was playing in his socks, was trying to impress given his usual ‘shoot-on-sight’ policy, but Riise went close with a trademark howitzer which fired over the bar.

There was a let-off for Liverpool when Maoulida spurned what looked like the most straightforward opportunity of the match, heading wide from a right wing cross when just six yards from goal and Auxerre were punished on 72 minutes when Agger added a second.

Sorin was forced to claw away an El Zhar header when the youngster was fed by Pennant from the right.

However, the former St Etienne man took the resultant corner kick himself and easily found the unmarked Agger who headed into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal.

There was still time for another couple of decent opportunities but Crouch headed just over from a Torres right wing cross before the Spaniard spurned his chance to grab a first goal in a red jersey as Sorin got out quickly to smother his stoppage-time effort.