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Liverpool thrashes Pompey

Mon 15th, March 2010

Liverpool, England (Sports Network) - Liverpool scored three times in a six- minute span in the first half en route to a comfortable 4-1 win over Portsmouth at Anfield on Monday.

Fernando Torres opened the floodgates with a goal in the 26th minute, and it was followed two minutes later by Ryan Babel before Alberto Aquilani tallied his first Premiership goal four minutes later.

Torres added a second goal in the 77th minute while Nadir Belhadj pulled one back for Pompey two minutes from time.

With the win, Liverpool moves into fifth place, one point back of fourth- placed Tottenham, while Manchester City looms only one point back of the Reds with two games in hand.

The match started slowly but it came to life in the 26th minute when Portsmouth goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown had his clearance deflected by Liverpool's Steven Gerrard.

The ball fell to Maxi Rodriguez inside the penalty area and he slid a pass to Torres for an easy finish.

The Spaniard had a hand in Liverpool's second goal as well as he laid a ball off to Babel inside the area and the Dutchman fired a shot into the lower right corner to make it 2-0.

Aquilani then curled a shot around the keeper at the near post in the 32nd minute to stretch the lead to 3-0 before halftime.

Torres almost added a fourth goal three minutes later when his shot came back off the post, while Babel had a shot tipped onto the crossbar by Ashdown early in the second half.

However, the lead grew to 4-0 with 13 minutes to play when Torres slipped a shot between two defenders and inside the near post, while Belhadj scored from close range in the 88th minute to spoil the clean sheet.