Pre Season Friendly
Sun 26th July 2009 12pm, National Stadium, Singapore
Liverpool won the ‘Lion Cup’ here in Singapore with a 5-0 demolition of Singapore – with 2 goals for Nemeth, 3 fantastic assists from an excellent Dirk Kuyt and a 15 minute cameo from Xabi Alonso.
Tens of thousands of Liverpool fans in Singapore cheered the reds on to the pitch with a terrific rendition of YNWA. All eyes were on the appearance of Alonso on the substitutes bench.
LFC Starting XI: Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, Babel, Mascherano, Lucas, Benayoun, Voronin, Ngog.
Ryan Babel had the reds first decent chance of the game on 6 minutes with a headed shot which went straight at the keeper.
Liverpool dominated possession – with Lucas delivering some fine crosses in to the box – San Jose failing to get his head on one cracking corner.
Despite Liverpool’s domination they were still struggling to create clear cut chances. N’gog was denied twice – once by an incorrect linesmans flag, and then by a last-gasp deflection when he attempted to lob the keeper.
Andriy Voronin suffered his own Vinnie Jones/Dennis Wise moment when he was grabbed in his crown jewels. After a couple of minutes of wincing – he got back in to the action.
And lucky he did – because despite having a poor first half he unleashed a 25 yard shot in injury time in the first half to send the reds in to the break 1-0 ahead.
The reds only made three changes at the beginning of the second half giving some of the players a longer run out than in the first three games of pre-season.
N’gog snatched at a shot that rolled wide, and Yossi Benayoun was presented with a chance in the corner of the penalty area which he fired over the crossbar.
Liverpool were creating more and more chances and in the 53rd minute Mascherano sent in a great cross to Riera, who held off his man, then fired Liverpool’s second goal from the edge of the 6 yard box.
In the 61st minute the reds made some wholesale changes with Torres and Kuyt amongst the seven substitutes joining the field.
Singapore were making single substitutions and the game became disjointed, with our opponents getting a foothold in the game.
However the arrival of Dirk Kuyt changed the course of the game as he set up 3 goals in the space of 20 minutes.
Nemeth scoring the reds third with a shot from 12 yards out – before Torres got Liverpool’s fourth after an excellent cross from Dirk.
At this stage Reina, Dossena and Xabi Alonso had appeared on the pitch – to a huge response from the Liverpool fans in the stadium.
Minutes later Kuyt again turned a great cross which Nemeth skilfully headed in to the top of the net to make it 5-0.
A couple of moments after that and Kuyt nearly grabbed a deserved goal for himself, a reaction save from the keeper denying him Liverpool’s sixth.
The reds may have taken their time to get going in this game – but once they did they dem0lished Singapore.
Liverpool fly back to England to continue their pre-season preparation. Espanyol up next on Sunday.
Goals
Voronin (45), Riera (53), Nemeth (74), Torres (78), Nemeth (83)
Team News
LFC Starting XI: Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, Babel, Mascherano, Lucas, Benayoun, Voronin, Ngog.
LFC Second Half: Gulacsi (Reina 77), Degen (Spearing 61), Carragher (Kelly 61), Agger (Alonso 77), Insua, Riera (Dossena 77), Mascherano (Kuyt 61), Lucas (Plessis 61), Benayoun (Pacheco 61), Voronin (Torres 61), Ngog (Nemeth 61).
Our Man of the Match: Dirk Kuyt