Liverpool extended their winning streak to 6 in all competitions and 4 straight league wins after handing Hull City a huge footballing lesson today at Anfield.
Liverpool had drawn with Hull last season at Anfield (2-2) but although Hull did peg the reds back at 1-1, Liverpool’s 4 goals in the second half ensured they fired their biggest win of the season.
Fernando Torres completed a fantastic hat-trick, each goal involved fantastic close footwork which the Hull defenders simply couldn’t cope with.
The reds took the lead in the 12th minute before a poor defensive header gave Geovanni the opportunity to equalise.
But that was as good as it got as Torres grabbed a second before half time, before completing his hat-trick a minute after the start of the second half.
Steven Gerrard fired a brilliant goal in before both him and Torres were substituted off with this week’s impending clash at Fiorentina.
In the last 5 minutes Liverpool added another two goals to their tally with a goal for Babel and then Riera shot and scored in the 90th minute to make it 6 (replays suggest Babel got the last touch to claim the sixth as well). Lucas being instrumental in both goals.
Liverpool consolidate their position in 3rd place in the league, and with Chelsea dropping points all eyes will be on a huge clash next weekend as Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge.
Post Match Comments
Rafael Benitez
“If we talk about Fernando Torres we talk about pace, ability, quality and if he hadn’t come off – we want to protect him – he could have scored more goals. We were attacking and attacking and attacking and it was just a question of time before we scored all those goals.”
Teams and Match Stats
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Insua, Carragher, Skrtel, Benayoun (Voronin 77), Kuyt , Gerrard (Mascherano 74), Leiva, Riera, Torres (Babel 67)
Unused subs: Cavalieri, Kyrgiakos, Aurelio, Ngog
Yellow: Skrtel
Goals: Torres (12, 28, 47), Gerrard (61), Babel (86, 90)
Hull City: Myhill, Dawson, McShane, Sonko, Cooper, Geovanni, Hunt, Kilbane (Marney 64), Boateng, Ghilas, Vennegoor of Hesselink (Cousin 63).
Unused subs: Warner, Zayatte, Barmby, Olofinjana, Altidore
Goals: Geovanni (15)
Referee: Walton
Attendance: 44,392
Our Man of the Match
Special mention to Lucas who we thought was immense today.
But, Hat trick hero – Looked like he was playing a different class of football to anyone else. The one – the only – Fernando Torres.