Fernando Torres scored his second brace in four days as Liverpool beat Lille 3-0 on Thursday night. The Spaniard opened his Europa League goalscoring account in style as the Reds overturned the French side’s 1-0 result from the first-leg to win 3-1 on aggregate and book a place in Friday's draw.

The home side levelled the tie early on when Gerrard opened the scoring from the spot after nine minutes. The Liverpool number ‘9’ then shot the Reds ahead on aggregate with a fine finish, before sealing the victory with a goal in the last minute.

Liverpool’s intentions were clear from the start as Ryan Babel had the Red’s first effort on goal early on. Although his strike was off target, it was a warning of things to come and it wasn’t long before the home side took the lead.

The Merseysiders went 1-0 up within the opening 10 minutes. Lucas Leiva was brought down in the box by Adil Rami and Gerrard made no mistake from the spot sending Landreau the wrong way. The captain’s penalty levelled the tie at 1-1 on aggregate.

The goal spurred the home side on and Fernando Torres almost scored a cracker just two minutes later to double the Red’s lead. The Spaniard jigged his way through the Lille defence but his angled shot deflected off a defender and behind for a corner.

Lille were on the back foot and Torres came close to adding a second. The opposing keeper Landreau had to race from line to deny the Spaniard who looked to burst through on goal after controlling a pass from Mascherano.

A Steven Gerrard corner caused chaos in the French box as Daniel Agger’s goalbound header was blocked by a crowd of players, and just before Kuyt could latch onto the loose ball, the Lille defence managed to clear the danger.

Lille’s scorer from the first-leg Eden Hazard brought out a reflex save from Reina after a clever one-two took the attacker into the Liverpool box. Luckily for the home side, Reina managed to divert the ball over the bar.

Fernando Torres headed just wide in the last attack of the half after some good work from Kuyt on the right-hand side. The Spaniard had come close to scoring in the first-half, but his insistence was rewarded just four minutes after the restart. A long ball forward from Babel was collected by Torres who left Chedjou for dead before calmly lifting the ball over Landreau. The goal took Liverpool ahead for the first time in the tie: 2-1 on aggregate.

LOSC had produced very little going forward, all they had to show in the second-half was a mis-cued shot from Aubameyang who should probably have done better.

One goal would have seen the French side through to the quarter-finals but it was the Anfield club who were to add a third to the delight of the Anfield faithful. And again it was that man Fernando Torres who fired home after Landreau could only parry a Gerrard shot.

The Spain forward was replaced by Ngog soon after scoring his side's third. As Torres left the Anfield pitch, he received a standing ovation from the home fans who will all be looking ahead to Friday's draw in Nyon to see which team will lie between the Reds, and a place in the semis of the Europa League.


- Match Stats: Liverpool 3-0 Lille

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger (Kyrgiakos, 90) Insua, Kuyt, Mascherano, Lucas, Babel, Gerrard, Torres (Ngog, 90)
Booked: Insua, Torres

Goals: Gerrard 9 (pen), Torres 49, 90

Lille: Landreau, Beria, Chedjou, Rami, Emerson, Balmont (Aubameyang, 72) Mavuba, Cabaye, Hazard (Vandam, 85), Frau (Toure, 58), Obraniak

Booked: Cabaye