Shamrock Rovers 0-4 Liverpool
THE LAST TIME Liverpool played Shamrock Rovers, Irish fans were treated to a Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush double-act up front.
This evening, they had to settle for Iago Aspas and Fabio Borini. They didn’t seem to mind.
The bulk of the 42,517 crowd, decked out in red, left the Aviva Stadium smiling after a comfortable 4-0 win against a Rovers side who never looked in danger of disgracing themselves.
While Suarez and Sturridge set their sights on Brazil, Liverpool’s second-string partnership of Aspas and Borini got a goal apiece before Martin Kelly and Jack Dunn added the gloss with two more late on.
When this post-season friendly was announced in late March, there was a very real prospect that Liverpool would arrive as Premier League champions for the first time in 24 years.
Instead they flew into Dublin on Wednesday morning still processing the pain of their near miss, although this was a team almost completely unrecognisable from those men who brushed with history.
Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Philippe Coutinho were named in the 23-man travelling party but left their boots at home and only appeared for a quick wave and to sign a handful of autographs at half-time.
The midfield duo of Joe Allen and Lucas were the only first-teamers to start, and it was no surprise when they departed at the break.
The obvious financial benefit aside, this was an evening for the Rovers players to step back from domestic challenges and test themselves against mighty opposition.
Hoops boss Trevor Croly named a strong team but with one eye on this weekend’s league game against struggling Athlone, and anxious to give all nine substitutes their chance, he emptied his bench in the second half.
When these sides played out that 1-1 draw in Milltown in 1982, a 19-year-old named Jim Beglin caught Bob Paisley’s eye and earned a dream move to Anfield.
This time it was a youngster already in Liverpool’s ranks, Jordon Ibe, who stole the show with a man of the match performance.
The 18-year-old made his senior debut before moving to Birmingham City on loan for the latter part of the season.
Within eight minutes he had created the game’s opening goal, burning Rob Cornwall for pace before pulling the ball back to leave Aspas with a simple finish from six yards out.
He also had a hand in Liverpool’s second which arrived four minutes into the second half. His pass allowed Borini to cut back inside and curl a shot beyond the diving Barry Murphy to nestle inside his left post.
The only blemish on his impressive evening came three minutes later. Aspas — who hasn’t quite established himself as fan favourite since his move from Celta Vigo last summer — nutmegged Jason McGuinness with a sublime backheel on the edge of the box.
Ibe did the hard work to take it wide of Murphy, but then somehow managed to put it over the bar when scoring would have been far easier.
Before Borini’s goal made the game safe, Rovers had chances of their own to shake things up with an equaliser in the first half.
Ciaran Kilduff headed straight at Brad Jones (a man who had a brief spell in goal with Shelbourne in the early 2000s) while Ryan Brennan was desperately unlucky to see his placed header from Simon Madden’s cross come off the inside of the post and trickle agonisingly back across the face of goal.
That was as good as it got for the Hoops. After Aspas’ shot was deflected, Kelly pounced to score from close range in the 74th minute and 19-year-old Dunn grabbed the fourth eight minutes from time.
Shamrock Rovers: Murphy (Hyland 63), Madden, Cornwall, McGuinness (D O’Connor 75), Byrne (Osam 75), McCabe (Kelly 63), Robinson (c, Finn 75), Brennan (Sheppard HT), McPhail (Bayly HT), Waters (S O’Connor HT), Kilduff (Zayed 63).Substitutes: Hyland, D O’Connor, Osam, Bayly, Finn, Kelly, Sheppard, S O’Connor, Zayed.
Liverpool: Jones (c), Smith, Kelly, Paez (Williams 78), McLaughlin (Randall 63), Lucas (Teixeira HT), Coady, Allen (Brannagan HT), Ibe, Borini (Dunn 78), Aspas (Pieterson 78). Substitutes: Ward, Dunn, Williams, Pieterson, Lussey, Randall, Tricket Smith, Teixiera, Brannagan.
Referee: Padraigh Sutton.
