Stroll in the summer sun

Liverpool cantered to a comfortable 3-0 victory at the Alexandra Stadium as Crewe struggled to deal with the Champions League runners up. A whole host of stars were on show for the Premiership side.

Crowd favourite Steven Gerrard signalled their intentions early doors as he rasped the crossbar with a trademark drive as early as the 4th minute to the delight of the partisan Liverpool crowd.

Crewe struggled to get hold of the ball and were taught a footballing lesson. It was no surprise when the Merseyside giants took the lead in the 22nd minute.

Academy graduate Lee Peltier opened the scoring, he scored after Ben Williams had parried Andryi Voronin shot. Moments later Liverpool were in cruise control as they went 2-0 up.

A deep punt by centre half Sammy Hyppia was collected by John Arne Risse out wide and he delivered the perfect cross for Peter Crouch to finish neatly in to the corner of the net.

It was a miserable afternoon for Crewe, who were just quite simply outclassed. Half time saw Rafa Benitez send out a completely new team for the 2nd half.

On 60 minutes mark another academy graduate in the shape of Lee Putterill made space for himself and struck a low drive in to the net which had Stuart Tomlinson well beaten.

As the game wore on Crewe gave a whole host of academy and trialist a run out as the clock ticked towards the 90th minute. The game finished 3-0 on a day to forget for Crewe fans.

Crewe:

Williams (Tomlinson), McCready (Faal-Thomas), Jones (Lynch), Cox (Bopp), Baudet, O'Donnell, Carrington (Moore), Schumacher (Bailey) , Maynard (Pope), Lowe (Miller), Roberts (Stone)

Liverpool:

First half: Reina, Finnan, Hyypia, Riise, Peltier, Gerrard, El Zhar, Voronin, Spearing, Crouch, Roque

Second Half: Martin, Paletta, Agger, Lindfield, Alonso, Pennant, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Putterill, Sissoko, Carragher

Att: 9, 764