Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun scored the first hat-trick of this season’s Champions League as five-time European champions Liverpool recorded the competition’s biggest ever win after crushing Turkish side Besiktas 8-0 at home. The victory keeps the last year’s runners up’s hopes of qualifying to the next round firmly on track after FC Porto beat Olympique Marseille 2-1 in Portugal.
Liverpool came into tuesday’s critical match needing to win after acquiring just one point in the previous three group matches. The Anfield side got the crucial breakthrough when Fernando Torres replacement Peter Crouch scored from a rebound in the 19th minute after some good initial play from fellow striker Ukrainian Andriy Voronin down the left hand side. From here on it was the Israeli who stole the show by scoring Liverpool’s next three goals in the 32nd, 53rd and 56th minutes. Skipper Steven Gerrard scored his side’s fifth goal in the 69th minute with a right-foot shot just inside the Besiktas penalty area. Young Dutch substitute Ryan Babel made it 6-0 with a back heel flick after being setup by Benayoun and the impressive Voronin twelve minutes from time. But Besiktas’ agony was not yet complete as the Reds added two more goals in the last ten minutes through Babel an Crouch, the England striker scoring his eighth Champions League goal.
This victory would certainly give a boost to manager Rafa Benitez. The Spanish coach was under the scanner after a spate of disappointing domestic and European results and the Liverpool supporters expect a silverware winning campaign after a high-spending summer that saw the arrival of many high-profile international names to the North-west of England.
In other Champions League news, both Real madrid and Chelsea were held to away draws by Olympiakos and Schalke04 respectively. Italian giants Lazio moved from last place to second place in group C after beating German side Werder Bremen 2-1 but Valencia suffered a horrible home loss to visiting Rosenborg for whom Norwegian striker Steffan Iversen scored a brace.
Defending champions AC Milan leads group D after seeing off Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 in Ukraine with two goals from substitute Filippo Inzaghi and one from Brazilian Kaka. In the same group Celtic stayed in the hunt for a spot in the knockout stage after a deflected Aiden Mcgeady goal just before half-time gave the Scottish champions a vital win over Benfica.
Image Link: Eurosport
