Liverpool Football Club News

• Nickname:Reds
• Founded:1892
• Manager:Kenny Dalglish

• Ground:Anfield
• Capacity:45,362

Reds pierce Porto's resolve

28 Nov 2007 - 22:03:06

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Liverpool kept their Champions League hopes alive with a 4-1 thrashing of FC Porto at Anfield, with Fernando Torres netting a double for Rafa Benitez's side.

The result means that a win in Marseille in a fortnight will almost certainly see the Reds progress to the knockout stages of the competition.

Under-pressure Reds boss Rafa Benitez opted to pair Torres and Andriy Voronin in attack, with Ryan Babel adding pace on the flank.

The early minutes saw few clear openings for either side, before Liverpool went ahead 19 minutes in as skipper Steven Gerrard swung a corner in from the right and Torres was given acres of space to head home from eight yards out.

However, the visitors silenced Anfield just past the half-hour mark when Przemysław Kazmierczak found space on the left and his cross picked out Lisandro Lopez to head home past a rooted Jose Reina.

Porto then dominated up until half-time, with Lopez going close to adding a second goal himself.

Liverpool struggled to pick up the pace after the restart and the game seemed to be heading for a draw that could have proved fatal for Benitez's side.

However, after Peter Crouch had come on, Torres broke clear of his marker to slot the ball beyond the advancing Helton to make the score 2-1 12 minutes from time.

With six minutes left it was game over as Milan Stepanov was adjudged to have handled in the area and Gerrard slotted home the resulting spot-kick in style.

Crouch put the final gloss on the scoreline three minutes from the end as he headed home another Gerrard corner from close range, with Helton left floundering.