Soccer Champions League, first qualifying round, first legLiverpool 3 TNS 0 Liverpool, and Steven Gerrard, are up and running. The first Ashes Test match may still be a week away but the competitive football season lurched into life last night with the mis-match most had expected, if not the humiliation some from Llansantffraid had feared.
The holders strolled through their first match in defence of the Champions League with Gerrard, the man they feared they had lost, purring at their core. The captain's first hat-trick was wonderfully taken, for all that Total Network Solutions ran feverishly and deserve to go into next week's second leg at Wrexham's Racecourse ground swollen with pride at this performance.
The Welsh champions may have pinched themselves as they emerged from the tunnel, but this was never supposed to be about romance.
Rafael Benítez had attempted to focus minds on the job in hand - a first-round qualifying game which he still privately considers to be something of an insult - by opting against parading the trophy won so gloriously in Istanbul prior to kick-off. This match was all about looking forward, not back.
The holders did just that. All the talk had been about beating the 11-0 record victory secured against Stromgodset in the 1974 Cup Winners' Cup, with the bookmakers offering odds of 66-1 on a repeat scoreline 31 years on.
Liverpool's relative lack of match fitness suggested the bookies' money was safe though the locals still had plenty to celebrate, not least the sight of their captain Gerrard strutting around central midfield in red.
A week ago the England midfielder appeared to have played his last game for this club. Number 17 shirts were being burnt in the streets of the city, the walls of Melwood daubed with abusive graffiti proclaiming the 25-year-old a traitor. Then came a startling change of heart in the small hours of the morning and, last night, an early hat-trick to spark the holders' season. That he should ignite this occasion was fitting.
The first, slapped with his right foot from the edge of the six-yard box after John Arne Riise, Anthony le Tallec and Fernando Morientes combined, prompted little more than a clinched fist in celebration. There was relief etched across the captain's face rather than delight.
His second was lobbed expertly over the stranded Gerard Doherty after Sami Hyypia and Le Tallec had combined to send him scurrying through the centre. Liverpool fans had wondered whether they would ever see such scenes again, so Gerrard's timing was perfect.
There might have been greater reward had Doherty not excelled. The goalkeeper endured something of a nightmare when TNS were spanked 5-0 at Manchester City in the Uefa Cup two years ago but he denied Gerrard and Morientes, twice, with magnificent close-range stops. By the time he took his place in front of the Kop for the second half his face was creased in a permanent smile, the delight of this occasion having long since sunk in.
Liverpool will view this as a professional job well done. They depart for Switzerland today for a pre-season training camp and by the time they return they hope Hyypia will have signed a new two-year contract and Gabriel Milito, the Real Zaragoza centre-half, will have signed.
A £7.5 million bid was rejected yesterday, with the Spaniards demanding £11.7 million for the Argentinian. Compromise should be reached in the days ahead. "I want to leave," said Milito. "I have demanded a settlement with Zaragoza and I believe that the transfer is possible."
He will join a club en route to the competition proper.
The hosts' huff and puff failed to prompt more reward until Gerrard speared his first hat-trick from distance in the dying moments. This was always likely to be the captain's night.
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Warnock (Zenden 64), Potter (Cisse 76), Alonso, Gerrard, Riise, Morientes, Le Tallec. Subs Not Used: Carson, Baros, Hamann, Josemi, Whitbread. Goals: Gerrard 8, 21, 89.
TNS: Doherty, Baker, Jackson, Evans, King, Wood, Ruscoe, Holmes (Lawless 72), Naylor, Ward (Leah 82), Wilde (Beck 59). Subs Not Used: Acton, Lloyd-Williams, Toner, Hogan. Booked: Baker.
Referee: Joeri Van Der Velde (Belgium).
