Football story by Georgina Scane, Wed, 22 Mar 2006 10:32:00 GMT


Liverpool routed a hapless Birmingham City 0-7 in their FA Cup quarterfinals played at St Andrews last night. Such was the dominance of the Reds that it looked like a side game for most of the time. Liverpool's strike force appears to have rediscovered its scoring touch much to the relief of manager Rafael Benitez.

Sami Hyypia turned the game in 54 seconds flat as he headed home Steven Gerrard's free kick to give Liverpool an early sniff. Four minutes later Peter Crouch made it 2-0 with a neat header off Gerrard's cross from the right. Eight minutes before half time, Crouch was in action once again as he met Luis Garcia's cross to triple Liverpool's advantage. Crouch could have had a hat trick before the close, but a header and a low shot were blocked off by the Blues defense. For Birmingham, Jamie Carragher and Mikael Forssell had good chances to pull something back, but alert keeping by Jose Reina put paid to their hopes. After the break, Morientes tucked one in off a Gerrard pass on the 60th minute, while John Arne Riise drilled a drive past Maik Taylor in the 70th minute. To compound Birmingham's misery, Olivier Tebily put in an own goal and Djibril Cisse got Liverpool's seventh in the closing minutes.

Birmingham boss Steve Bruce admitted his side were humiliated by Liverpool, "I'm shell-shocked, disappointed and humiliated. It was men against boys, a result possibly waiting to happen with the patched-up side we have got," he said. "It's possibly the worst night I have ever experienced, certainly in management, and with the players there are a lot of dented egos in the dressing room - and my ego is dented as well." Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said luck played a large part in his side's emphatic win, "I'm delighted with the final result and the performance of the players," he said. "We are closer to the final and we will try to do the same things, play well, but in one game anything can happen."

Match Details
Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Martin Taylor (Tebily 45), Painter, Pennant, Johnson (Bruce 75), Clemence, Clapham, Forssell, Dunn (Kilkenny 71).

Liverpool: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore (Kewell 22), Alonso, Gerrard (Cisse 71), Sissoko, Riise, Crouch (Morientes 56), Luis Garcia.
Goals: Hyypia 1, Crouch 5, 38, Morientes 59, Riise 70, Tebily 77 og, Cisse 89.

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