"It was a wonderful
game of football..."
                   Gerard Houllier

OCTOBER 16
Houllier delighted with win

itv.com

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier was a happy man following the Reds demolition of Olimpija Ljubljana at Anfield in the Uefa Cup on Wednesday, which moved them comfortably into the second round.

Goals from Anthony Le Tallec, Emile Heskey and Harry Kewell gave Liverpool an easy 3-0 win, for a 4-1 aggregate triumph, a result which came on the back of consecutive defeats in the Premiership to Charlton and Arsenal.

"I loved it, there were times when you just sit back and enjoy the performance of your team, and this was one of those games,"said the Frenchman after the game.

"It was a wonderful game of football, and we won with a performance that was at times brilliant and always extremely comfortable.

"The passing and inter-changing was excellent and we could have won by far more. They gave us a very good game in Slovenia but at times we made them look very ordinary."

Houllier added: "We were extremely disciplined. In games like these against supposed lesser teams you must show the right focus and attitude and we played as a team.

"It was a treat on the eye, I just enjoyed what I was seeing.

"When you get the right result and the right performance it is the perfect end."

Houllier also said he hoped the result would be the start of a winning run for the team following the defeats in the Premiership.

"I know we lost those two games, but we always even then played good football and at times were very unfortunate.

"I just want them to now carry on the way they are playing.

"And you must not forget that we produced a display like that without Michael Owen, Dietmar Hamann, Milan Baros and Jamie Carragher, four players who would have been first pick if they had been fit."

OCTOBER 15
Liverpool overwhelm Olimpija

BBC Sport Online

Liverpool comfortably advanced into the Uefa Cup second round after overcoming Slovenia's Olimpija as Anfield glimpsed its first real sight of French teenager Anthony Le Tallec.

The 18-year-old Le Tallec scored on his full Anfield debut to give Liverpool the lead and soon afterwards Emile Heskey added a second.

Within two minutes of the restart those two goalscorers combined to set up Harry Kewell, who volleyed home sweetly to score the goal of the game.

Le Tallec's goal capped a memorable performance but it was the Frenchman's vision and ability to pick a pass that really stood out, notably his reverse pass to Heskey early on in the game.

Olimpija had looked to frustrate Liverpool and then attack on the break through the midfield guile of Mladen Rudonja and the pace of lone striker Jusufbegovic.

It was a tactic that almost gave Olimpija an early lead when Jusufbegovic drew a fine save from Jerzy Dudek after the Bosnian was released by Rudonja's pass.

Later in the first half, more intelligent running from Jusufbegovic saw him again break clear only for Igor Biscan to make a fine saving tackle.

In between the visitors' sporadic attacks Liverpool had peppered the Olimpija goal with a series of shots and headers but were denied by a series of fine saves by Borut Mavric.

The pick of those was his reaction save to thwart Kewell after the Australian had swivelled to arrow a low half-volley goalwards.

Just before the half-hour Maric's luck ran out when he dived to save El Hadji Diouf's cross only to spill the ball into the path of Le Tallec, who calmly slotted home.

Heskey's goal followed a sweeping Liverpool move that released Vladimir Smicer, who crossed allowing the England international to touch the ball past Maric.

The second half had only just started when Liverpool added a third.

Le Tallec released Heskey into space down the right and his cross to Kewell was sidefooted home by the Australian on the volley.

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier then withdrew the 18-year-old Frenchman, replacing him with Florent Sinama Pongolle, who arrived with Le Tallec from Le Havre during the summer.

In the closing stages Liverpool should have made it four but Maric saved Diouf's penalty after Steve Finnan had been brought down by Marko Kmetec.