Liverpool began the 2007-08 campaign in fine style on the domestic front, coming through their opening 11 Premier League fixtures without suffering a defeat in a run that included five victories and six draws.
In sharp contrast, Rafael Benitez's team, who had finished the previous season as Champions League runners-up, were struggling in Europe having registered just a point from their opening three contests which left them requiring a win from their encounter with Besiktas at Anfield to give the Merseyside giants a realistic chance of progressing through to the knockout stages.
Benitez began the fixture with Andriy Voronin and Peter Crouch in attack as he chose to keep Fernando Torres on a substitutes' bench that also included Dirk Kuyt, Harry Kewell and Ryan Babel, but it only took the pair entrusted with getting Liverpool's European ambitions back on track 19 minutes to open the scoring against their Turkish opponents.
Voronin, who would see his time at Liverpool deteriorate soon after this fixture, played in Crouch, who was aided by a deflection before netting at the second attempt from close range after seeing his previous effort saved by Hakan Arikan.
John Arne Riise almost found the back of the net with a bullet header which was cleared off the line but Liverpool did make it two shortly after the half-hour mark with Voronin again the provider. The Ukrainian floated a ball across the penalty area into the path of Yossi Benayoun, who controlled the ball before volleying home from 14 yards.
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Liverpool couldn't add to their tally before the break but the confidence that they had been bereft of earlier in their European campaign had returned. Their supporters would have been content with their side seeing out a 2-0 success, but nothing could have prepared them for what would transpire in the following 45 minutes.
A third goal arrived for the Reds when Voronin set up Riise to blast the ball against the upright before Benayoun reacted fastest to convert the rebound, and it only required three more minutes for the Israeli midfielder to claim the match ball.
His treble was completed in similar circumstances to his second. A Steven Gerrard free kick was spilled by Arikan and Benayoun was again perfectly placed to sweep home from close range to not only put the result beyond any reasonable doubt but to open the floodgates in front of the Kop.
The fifth arrived from Gerrard with Voronin providing his third assist of the evening. The club captain played a one-two with the former Dynamo Kiev forward before advancing into the penalty area to rifle the ball home inside the near post from 14 yards for just his third goal of the season.
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Benayoun turned provider to set up Liverpool's sixth with 11 minutes remaining. The playmaker found himself on the right-hand side before drilling over a low cross for Babel to flick the ball into the far corner from inside the six-yard box to register the club's most goals in a Champions League fixture.
Two minutes later, that record was broken in rather fortuitous circumstances. A long ball over the top of the defence released Babel but after Ibrahim Toraman got to the ball first, his attempted clearance struck the Dutchman before floating over a stranded Arikan and into the net.
The record for the biggest winning margin in a Champions League match was 8-0 set by Real Madrid against Sevilla in 1958, but 49 years on, Liverpool ensured that they would share that record with the Spanish outfit with an eighth goal in the closing stages.
A searching ball from Javier Mascherano found Benayoun, who wasted no time in crossing for Crouch to power a header across Arikan to cap off a memorable night on Merseyside, and the result acted as a catalyst for another significant run in the competition.
Dominant wins over Porto and Marseille saw Liverpool make the knockout stages where they disposed of Inter Milan and Arsenal. However, Benitez failed to lead the club to a third final in four attempts after they suffered a 4-3 aggregate defeat at the hands of Chelsea in the semi-finals.
Darren Plant
