Hull hit for six as Torres treble fires Liverpool

Fernando Torres fired a hat-trick as Liverpool turned on the style with a 6-1 win over struggling Hull at Anfield on Saturday.

Spanish striker Torres scored his three goals within 47 minutes, while Steven Gerrard also hit the target and Ryan Babel added two late goals as a testing first half for the home team transformed into a rout.

Rafa Benitez’s side are now just three points behind leaders Manchester United despite losing two of their first three league games.

For all their well-documented problems, and all the growing pressure on manager Phil Brown, there was no questioning Hull’s commitment early in the contest after Torres’s first goal threatened to sweep the visitors away.

Barely 30 seconds had passed when Hull goalkeeper Boaz Myhill was required to sprint from his line to save at the feet of Torres who had chased down Gerrard’s through ball.

Myhill was powerless in the 11th minute, however, when Torres opened the scoring. Emiliano Insua fed Albert Riera down the left flank and his inch-perfect pass into the area found Torres who switched the ball from right to left foot with lightning speed.

There was little doubt of the outcome thereafter and the Spaniard did not disappoint as he stroked home his sixth goal of the season into the bottom right-hand corner.

It looked plain sailing for Liverpool from there against a Hull team which has won just two of their 27 league games since drawing on this ground last season.

But Liverpool’s defensive fragility at set-pieces and in the air would give Hull hope of getting back into the contest and it took just three minutes for them to find an equaliser.

Paul McShane placed a cross onto the head of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink after 14 minutes and his ball across the area should have been cleared by Martin Skrtel.

Instead, the Liverpool defender only flicked it into the path of Geovanni and the Brazilian, who signed a new two-year deal with the Premier League strugglers this week, buried a magnificent, first-time volley past Pepe Reina from around a dozen yards.

But there was no answer to the irresistible Torres.

After 28 minutes, Yossi Benayoun won the ball impressively from Andy Dawson and slipped a telling pass through to Torres who dribbled his way around two defenders and Myhill along the six-yard line before calmly placing the ball into the empty net.

Hull wanted a quick response and Geovanni almost gave it them with a 25-yard strike that rose just over before McShane threatened at a corner.

But the outcome was settled when Torres completed his hat-trick just two minutes into the second half.

Benayoun created the goal with a pass that sprung Torres beyond the Hull defence and there was the opportunity for the striker to again show neat footwork in the area, leaving an embarrassed Ibrahima Sonko in his wake, before placing a left-foot shot through a crowded area into the corner of the goal.

Gerrard’s goal, just after the hour, was somewhat fortunate as a Hull corner broke down and he punted in a long cross towards the far post, Myhill losing the flight of the ball as it looped over his head into the corner of his net.

Hull tired as they pressed forward to try and find some degree of respectability and Glen Johnson, and substitutes Babel and Andriy Voronin all might have scored.

Eventually, Babel met Voronin’s 87th minute cross for a simple, unmarked finish just off the goalline and then added his second in the last minute.