Liverpool bounced back from a midweek defeat against Atletico Madrid with a convincing win against Burnley.
Goals from Steven Gerrard, Maxi Rodriguez and Ryan Babel and another subsequent clean sheet for Pepe Reina helped to see Liverpool record their first away win of 2010 and see off the relegation battlers, effectively seeing them into the Coca Cola Championship after a gutsy year in the top flight.
Changes to the side included Daniel Ayala coming in for Sotirios Kyrgiakos, N’Gog making way for Ryan Babel, the previously cup tied Maxi Rodriguez starting in the place of Yossi Benayoun and Alberto Aquilani getting a rare start in the Premier League in for Lucas.
A long journey to and from Madrid for the Europa League game looked to have played havoc with Liverpool’s fatigue levels in the early stages, but in the end this turned out to be largely inneffective as Liverpool strolled a 4-0 victory at Turf Moor.
After few exchanges in the first half, with Gerrard testing Brian Jensen and Babel seeing a shot wide. Burnley seen a penalty claim for handball refused on 35 minutes. Replays confirmed that Glen Johnson did not handle the ball but he controlled it using his chest.
Burnley then looked to be making good use of Liverpool’s apparent fatigue from all of the travelling with a close range Jack Cork header saved by Pepe Reina.
Ryan Babel had an effort saved at the left hand post with only Jensen to beat, but the angle looked too much for the Dutchman to take advantage of.
The second half began with another penalty claim for Burnley, this time with Agger involved. Once again Phil Dowd correctly refused the spot kick.
Dirk Kuyt was then replaced with Yossi Benayoun, with the industrious Dutchman limping over to the bench.
Further pressure from Burnley was then cancelled out as Gerrard dispatched a wonderfully hit strike on 52 minutes after some brilliant football from Aquilani as Gerrard’s shot was deflected off Leon Cort.
Shortly afterwards on 59 minutes, Gerrard smashed home a 25 yard screamer, with no help from a Burnley player, safely in to the bottom corner.
On 74 minutes, Fletcher seen a strike deflect off the post for Burnleybut Maxi Rodriguez shortly followed with a comfortable finish, hammering the final nail in the Premier League cofin for Burnley. Shortly afterwards, Babel tucked away Liverpool’s fourth following a fantastic ball through from Lucas.
Teams:
Burnley: Jensen, Fox, Cort, Duff, Mears, Elliot, Alexander (Blake 63), Cork, Nugent (Thompson 77), Fletcher, Paterson (Eagles 71).
Liverpool: Reina, Agger (Lucas 78), Ayala, Carragher, Johnson, Babel, Mascherano, Aquilani, Rodriguez, Gerrard (Pacheco 82), Kuyt (Benayoun 48).
Referee: Phil Dowd
Attendance: 21,553.