Liverpool 1-0 Lazio

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Andriy Voronin's stoppage-time goal gave Liverpool a 1-0 victory over Lazio in the Reds' final pre-season friendly of the summer at Anfield this evening. The Ukrainian had only been on the field a matter of minutes when he lashed the ball past goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo from inside the box. The result maintains Liverpool's unbeaten pre-season record ahead of the Champions League qualifier with Standard Liege in Belgium next week. Manager Rafael Benitez named a strong side for the 43,062 packed inside Anfield. Pepe Reina began in goal behind a back four consisting of Alvaro Arbeloa, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger and new-signing Andrea Dossena. Dirk Kuyt, Xabi Alonso, Damien Plessis and Yossi Benayoun made up the midfield with Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres once more partners in attack. Liverpool began confidently and Torres saw an early effort just clear the crossbar before a one-two between Keane and Kuyt resulted in the former shooting wide. On 19 minutes, Torres' stooping header looped over the bar while Lazio's first chance came moments later when Mauri nodded wide. On the stroke of half-time, Kuyt was millimetres away from connecting with Benayoun's cross when the slightest touch would have surely resulted in the opening goal. Benitez replaced Torres with David Ngog at the interval and the Reds continued where they left off with Kuyt testing Carrizo before Keane stabbed wide of the post. Alonso saw a free-kick defeclted wide on the hour. From the resulting corner, Kuyt scuffed an effort before Agger's half-volley was beaten away by Carrizo. Lazio began to gain a foothold in the game and started to test Reina with a succession of long-range efforts. Benitez made a plethora of substitutions towards the end and it was two of the Reds' freshly introduced players who created the goal in injury time. Ngog's sruged down the left saw his cross deflected into the path of Jay Spearing. The midfielder directed the ball towards Voronin and the striker struck the ball on the half-volley past Carrizo from 15 yards. Lazio had a goal ruled out for offside seconds later as Liverpool held out for the win. Afterwards Benitez was full of praise for his younger players. He said: "I think it was a very good game against a good team. "You could see they were pretty sharp, comfortable on the ball and played well on the counter attack. We had two or three really good chances to score and win the game so overall it was very positive, particularly as we had a lot of young players in the side. "The young players were good too. We know all about the senior players but they all played well. Nabil El Zhar, Jay Spearing, Damien Plessis, and Nemeth - they were all good."