Torres And Gerrard Fashion Liverpool Win
Fernando Torres scored his first goal in a Liverpool shirt and Steven Gerrard scored a stunner from outside the box as Liverpool saw off Shanghai Shenhua 2-0 in the first game of the Rotterdam tournament.
Torres scored with a deft touch following a great assist from Yossi Benayoun - one of the players of the match - while Gerrard scored with a stunning lob into the far corner from outside the box, on an overall positive outing for the Reds.
If Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez was looking for an injury-free workout that didn't over-tax his players, but also yielded a win, a clean-sheet and a goal for new striker Fernando Torres, then this game certainly ticked all the boxes.
The game was played at a liesurely pace throughout between teams who were somewhat mis-matched in terms of squad quality, but Liverpool did all that was asked of them, and emerged with some significant plus-points.
Momo Sissoko and Yossi Benayoun struck up an understanding in midfield, Sissoko running the game until he was withdrawn and Benayoun setting up the first goal with a sublime pass from the edge of the area that Torres latched onto, taking a couple of touches before beating Zhang with a deft dink into the net on 13 minutes.
The goal must have been a huge psychological boost to the Spanish striker, although Liverpool did not respond to taking the lead by going for the jugular. The feeling always was that the Premiership side could step up a gear and punish Shanghai at any time, but they played comfortably within themselves.
Indeed, for a while they took their foot off the gas, allowing Shanghai into the game. After Torres had gone down in the box under a challenge from Sun Xiang, who was rightly not penalised, sloppy defending enabled Li Weifeng in and he nearly embarrassed Liverpool, but goalkeeper David Martin got a foot in the way anf it went wide of the post. Li Weifeng then cut in from the left but made it easy for Martins with a soft shot.
After the break the tempo remained sedate, but Liverpool were dominating proceedings. There was a big cheer from the crowd when Steven Gerrard and local boy Dirk Kuyt came on for Sissoko and Peter Crouch, respectively, and both were soon involved, although not before Hamilton Record, once of Middlesbrough, caused a flutter with a header from a right-wing corner.
However, Gerrard soon showed his class with Liverpool's second goal. On 64 minutes, within three minutes of coming on, the skipper made his mark after receiving the ball on the edge of the area, creating space with a deft turn to shake off his marker, spotting Zhang off his line and chipping the ball unerringly over the keeper and into the net.
Kuyt then pressed his claims with a bright cameo performance, leading the Reds' line with intelligence and graft and setting up half-chances for his team-mates.
The game ended with Liverpool still comfortably in control, and able to move on smoothly to Sunday's meeting with hosts Feyenoord.