Reds find Torres and 3 points again

Fernando Torres scored only his second goal of the season as Liverpool beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 at home to move closer to Premier League safety

Torres’s last goal came in Liverpool’s last Premier League win, at home to West Brom on August 29, but he was on good form after a midweek rest as the club’s new owners watched their first game at Anfield.

Sotiris Kyrgiakos had opened the scoring for the hosts only for a Jamie Carragher own goal to bring it level soon afterwards.

But Torres quickly pounced to win the match, with all three goals coming in a five-minute spell in the second half.

The result leaves the Reds third-bottom, behind Blackburn and Fulham on goal difference but only three points from seventh place.

Under-pressure boss Roy Hodgson saw his side dominate the match with an excellent performance from Paul Robinson preventing them from running away with it.

Liverpool welcomed back Torres, Steven Gerrard, Raul Meireles and Lucas after they were rested for the Europa League draw at Napoli, and they utterly dominated the first half.

The Reds had close to three quarters of possession and only failed to take the lead on account of some excellent goalkeeping from Paul Robinson and some poor finishing.

Meireles somehow poked wide on eight minutes after Paul Robinson did well to keep Joe Cole’s low finish out following superb link-up play between Maxi Rodriguez and a brighter-than-usual Torres, who was carefully tracked by a hawk-like Phil Jones.

The former England goalkeeper made an even better save 10 minutes later, denying Kyrgiakos’s free header with a spectacular tip over, and was equal to Gerrard’s trademark piledriver seven minutes after that.

Soon after Robinson again did well from Gerrard, keeping out his free-kick with Martin Skrtel and Meireles flying in, while Portugal international Meireles was denied when his thunderbolt struck Michel Salgado square on the jaw.

Salgado recovered and from the resultant corner Lucas bettered Meireles’s early miss, heading over from point-blank range as he leant back into Kyrgiakos’s flick-on, while in first-half stoppage time Maxi weighed in with a boo-boo of his own as he somehow failed to connect with an inch-perfect Gerrard cross.

Somehow it was goalless at the break but that changed soon after the restart.

Liverpool took a deserved lead two minutes into the second half when Kyrgiakos - always an aerial threat at set-pieces - powered another Gerrard corner in off Martin Olsson on the line.

It should have been two three minutes later, but Robinson again pulled off a world-class save as Maxi flew in to head a Gerrard corner on goal.

From the resultant break Blackburn were level, their first real chance of the match taken in bizarre fashion as, following a burst down the right from Benjani, El-Hadj Diouf’s finish was cleared off the line by Paul Konchesky only to rebound in off Carragher.

It was barely deserved but the home side bounced back as Torres finally broke his season’s duck with a crisp first-time finish as Cole’s excellent cross found the Spain star unmarked at the far post, although the marking was slack from Rovers.

Kyrgiakos again went close from a corner, bouncing a bullet header into the ground and inches over the bar, while a rare spell of Blackburn possession yielded a Morten Gamst Pedersen shot that flew just over.

Liverpool had been hunting for a third but that close shave saw them retreat into their half and the game degenerate into a scrappy phase.

That suited Rovers, who employed a direct approach to win a succession of set pieces that Liverpool rallied to resist.

David NGog was brought on for Cole as the hosts looked to keep the ball higher up the pitch and it seemed to work as Liverpool had the better of the latter stages, Meireles having another long shot blocked and Torres guilty of poor control when Gerrard sent him in.

Blackburn were unable to put Liverpool under any pressure in injury time and the hosts closed out their first win in seven league games, relieving some of the pressure on Hodgson.