Liverpool demolished a hapless Stoke City 4-1 as they made light work of their opponents. Alberto Moreno gave the Reds an early lead after a thunderbolt strike fomr long range. But Bojan equalized in the 22nd minute after being left unmarked in the box.
Daniel Sturridge helped Liverpool regained the lead after some fine work by youngster Ojo. And in the second half substitute Divock Origi scored two more, one a close range header and the other a wonderful curled effort from an acute angle. The win lifts Liverpool above Stoke into 8th position.
Squads:
Liverpool: Mignolet; Clyne, Toure, Skrtel, Moreno; Allen, Milner; Stewart, Ojo, Firmino; Sturridge
Stoke City: Haugaard; Bardsley, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; Imbula, Cameron; Afellay, Bojan, Shaqiri; Crouch
Liverpool came into this match on the back of a morale-boosting 1-1 draw against Jurgen Klopp’s old side Borussia Dortmund. They were looking to continue that momentum into this game as well.
Firmino was back for Liverpool after missing the last few games and Sturridge started in place of Divock Origi. Stoke’s main threat all season has been Xherdan Shaquiri and Marko Arnoutvic with the latter missing for this game.
The visitors made the brighter start but Liverpool took the lead within eight minutes. Milner took a free kick from the left-hand side which found Moreno and the left-back unleashed a fierce shot from 20 yards that powered past the Stoke Keeper to make it 1-0.
But Stoke weren’t ones to take that lying down and struck back in the 22nd minute. Xherdan Shaquiri’s delivery from a free kick found Bojan who was unmarked in the box and he nodded home the equalizer it make it 1-1.
The Reds didn’t have to wait long to regain the lead. Youngster Ojo skipped a couple of challenges on the left-hand side and crossed for Daniel Sturridge how tapped home from close range to make it 2-1.
The teams went into half-time with that scoreline with Klopp definitely the happier of the two managers. But Stoke were not out of this tie, given their first half performance. DIvock Origi came on for Ojo at the start of the second half because of an injury to the starlet.
And the substitute had an immediate impact. Within 10 minutes of the restart, the striker who had scored against Dortmund got his name on the scoresheet again with a close range header from a Milner cross.
Thirteen minutes later Origi got his second of the game. The striker found some space on the left -hand side of the box and drove a fierce curled shot that landed in the bottom corner of the net to make it 4-1.
That goal ended the game as a contest but the Reds could have scored more as Stoke’s defense went into meltdown.But the game finished as 4-1 with Jurgen Klopp’s men now with a really good chance to finish in the European spots.
