ONE down, two to go. Liverpool took an emphatic first step towards Champions League redemption with a record-breaking victory against Besiktas last night.
Rafael Benitez’s side followed the words of Steven Gerrard to the letter by going for the jugular and cutting loose in spectacular fashion to post the biggest win in the competition’s history.
The frustrations of their European campaign to date were taken out on the Turkish side as the Anfield outfit rattled eight goals past the disbelieving visitors.
Not a bad way for Benitez to celebrate his 50th game in charge at Liverpool in this tournament.
But the Spaniard’s continued impassive response as the goals flew in demonstrated the collective belief that his team shouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place.
Liverpool’s previous biggest win in the Champions League proper was the 5-0 thumping of Spartak Moscow in 2002. Of course, that season represented the only time the Anfield team have previously failed to progress beyond the group stage of the competition.
And as much of a boost for morale this victory will provide, Liverpool are aware that both Porto and Marseille must still be beaten to win through to the knockout stages.
Indeed, the ease at which they swatted aside Besiktas only served to underline how damaging their 2-1 reverse in Istanbul a fortnight ago may yet ultimately prove.
That defeat had prompted questions about Benitez’s team selection and whether Liverpool were capable of competing for any honours this season. The only debate last night was how many goals the home team would score, netting twice in the first half before letting loose after the break.
The supporters who had been screaming “attack, attack, attack” in despair at the showing for large parts of the goalless draw at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday evening were sounding the same chant in delight.
Besiktas were admittedly awful, but Liverpool made them that way. Benitez’s side had 28 shots on goal in Istanbul and scored just once; last night they had 30 shots and scored eight.
Peter Crouch bookended the performance – sending a reminder to his manager in the process – while Yossi Benayoun rattled a hat-trick. Gerrard got in on the act and substitute Ryan Babel netted a late brace.
Now Liverpool need to transfer that ruthlessness into their Premier League performances and begin turning domestic draws into wins.
Star performer last night was Benayoun. The Israeli was bought as a replacement for Luis Garcia, and has seemingly inherited the departed Spaniard’s happy knack of producing in the Champions League, scoring three goals and having a hand in two others.
With the fit-again Fernando Torres loitering with intent on the bench, Crouch made the most of only his seventh start of the season following his positive impact as a substitute at Ewood Park.
The striker also caused Besiktas problems during his late cameo in Istanbul, and his sheer presence last night was too much for an increasingly disillusioned centre-back pairing of Ibrahim Uzulmez and Lamine Diatta. It was a compelling argument for Benitez to now make greater use of Crouch.
For their part, Besiktas barely threatened a Liverpool defence in which Sami Hyypia was making the 100th European appearance of his career.
Benitez had made four changes from the team that were held at Blackburn, Crouch coming in to partner Andriy Voronin up front while Alvaro Arbeloa and Fabio Aurelio filled the full-back positions.
And Crouch didn’t waste any time in putting Liverpool ahead in the 19th minute.
Voronin cut in from the left in search of Crouch, only for Edouard Cisse to take the ball off the striker’s feet with a sliding challenge.
However, the tackle inadvertently played Crouch in on goal and, after holding off Uzulmez, the Liverpool man stroked home at the second attempt after Besiktas goalkeeper Hakan Arikan’s initial parry.
