Reds crush Besiktas 8-0!!

Everyone with a red heart was nervous. Benitez was under the gun. The twice-finalists in three years were at the verge of being kicked out of the CL at group stage. Liverpool needed a win. Badly! After a dreadful start in the EPL and bad luck in their first three CL matches, Anfield expected wonders from their boys.

And they got it!

In a wonderful and typical Liverpool performance, led by a thriving Steve Gerrard, the Reds did the job. It was the underused Crouch who scored the first (thanks to a blundering defense one must add) in the 20est minute, breaking Besiktas’ resistance. A ref mistake gave the throw in to Liverpool some time later in the first half and while the Turks were protesting this decision, Riise threw in quickly and out of that throw in Israelian Benayouin scored the 2-0. A fast 3-0 in the second half clinched the match and the Reds could do whatever they wanted. Benayouin also scored the 4-0 which was almost a copy of his second goal. A beautiful attack was finished by Gerrard, who left the pitch after 75 minutes. Ryan Babel and Harry Kewell were amongst the subs who came on and Kewell showed his trademark skills on the wing, while Babel was hungry for goals. And he got his time in the spotlight scoring a brilliant backheel goal, making it 6-0. The 7-0 will officially also be a Babel goal, although he never saw what happened. He chased a deep ball, the defender wanted to clear it only the ball hit Babel’s back and lobbed over the - very mediocre -goalie: 7-0. Babel had a huge opp to score a hattrick after a Kewell cross but Babel forgot to head the ball towards the ground and thus hit the cross bar. In the dying seconds, Crouch scored his second, a header, to finalize the tally at 8 and take over Juventus’ record of the biggest CL-victory. Dirk Kuyt remained on the bench.