SOCCER/Liverpool 4 Toulouse 0 (Liverpool win 5-0 on aggregate):Two goals in the last three minutes by the Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt helped Liverpool to an easy passage through to the group stages of the Champions League last night.
The occasion, however, meant more to Liverpool and its inhabitants than the money and prestige that accompanies a place in the Champions League proper.
Football rivalries were cast aside in honour of the 11-year-old Evertonian Rhys Jones, who was shot dead a week ago today in Croxteth Park.
At the request of thousands of Liverpool supporters via website message boards and following consultation between chief executive Rick Parry and the family of the murdered schoolboy, the Z-Cars theme synonymous with rivals Everton sounded for the first time inside this stadium.
Rhys' parents, Stephen and Melanie, and brother Owen, again put football into perspective as they stood on the touchline throughout an emotional tribute for the second time in four days, a visibly moved Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez embracing Melanie Jones at its conclusion.
This was a show of unity not seen between the city rivals since the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and a far cry from the poisonous atmosphere and petty point-scoring that has developed between the clubs in the intervening years.
On such a depressing foundation it was perhaps expecting too much of Liverpool to open with the flourish that would have settled this tie at a canter, and in the early, uncertain moments Toulouse posed more of a threat to Jose Reina's goal than throughout the sweltering first leg in south-west France.
Liverpool, showing seven changes to the side that began at Sunderland on Saturday, recovered and showed they have sufficient strength in depth to avoid complications.
Benitez's rotation presented two players who are struggling to accept his managerial philosophy, Peter Crouch and Yossi Benayoun, with their second starts of the season and their response brimmed with the intent and desire of the wronged.
Benayoun offered the trickery of his finest outings for West Ham, providing Liverpool with consistent width in tandem with surprise debutant Sebastian Leto, the left winger signed for €2.8 million from Argentinean side Lanus this summer, and a healthy supply to a grateful Anfield attack.
Crouch should have claimed the match-ball by half-time as he sent two glorious opportunities over with his head having opened the scoring from close range in the 19th minute.
For once the delivery from the right wing did not come from Benayoun, as Dirk Kuyt swung over a deep cross towards the far post that the England international striker turned beyond Toulouse goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez with an outstretched right boot.
To the annoyance of Benitez, whose discomfort rose with every invitation spurned by Liverpool, Toulouse almost pulled themselves back into the contest when defender Mauro Cetto headed a glorious chance wide of the Kop goal from a Paulo Cesar corner in the 34th minute.
Fortunately for the Liverpool manager, what little uncertainty lingered over the result ended four minutes after the restart when Sami Hyypia rose with the broken nose he suffered at the Stadium of Light and headed a corner from Benayoun unopposed beyond the completely exposed Douchez.
The French visitors Toulouse could offer little more than a respectable retreat.
LIVERPOOL:Reina, Riise, Hyypia (captain), Agger (Finnan 82), Arbeloa, Leto (Babel 75), Mascherano, Sissoko (Leiva 68), Benayoun, Crouch, Kuyt. Subs not used:Alonso, Torres, Pennant, Itandje
TOULOUSE:Douchez, Cetto, Cesar, Ilunga, Mathieu (Sissoko 82), Dieuze (captain), Fofana, Sirieix, Emana (Fabinho 77), Elmander, Gignac (Bergougnoux 54). Subs not used:Riou, Jonsson, Mansare, Batlles
Referee: W Stark.
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