Irish international Robbie Keane scored his first goal for Liverpool as the Reds cruised to a comfortable 3-1 win over PSV Eindhoven in their Group D Champions League fixture. Skipper Steven Gerrard also scored his 100th goal for the club in the second half as Liverpool continued their impressive start to the new season.
PSV’s hopes of grinding out a draw were given an early jolt when Dirk Kuyt opened the scoring in the 4th minute. Fernando Torres sneaked ahead of Jeremie Brechet to shoot at Andreas Isaksson from Steven Gerrard’s corner, but the former Man City goalkeeper managed to produce a reflex save. The ball eventually bobbled to Kuyt, whose shot hit the roof of the net after Isaksson failed to stop it.
Liverpool were clearly the superior side, and passed the ball around comfortably. Keane felt he should have had a penalty in the 20th minute, but referee Felix Byrch felt that PSV defender Simmons had not done anything wrong. However Keane was on target in the 34th minute, with a wonderful finish from Fernando Torres’ cross.
Torres missed a sitter in the 65th minute when Jan Krompkamp went to sleep, but the third goal did arrive ten minutes, courtesy of a set piece scorcher from Gerrard.
Danny Koevermans pulled one back for PSV towards the end, but Liverpool were never really troubled by the Dutch giants, who looked a shadow of the 2005 side that advanced to the last four.