Peter Crouch scored twice to lead Liverpool to a 7-0 FA Cup victory at Birmingham City on Tuesday and send Rafa Benitez's team to the semifinals.
Steven Gerrard aided in five goals as Sami Hyypia, Fernando Morientes, John Arne Riise, Djibril Cisse and an own-goal by Olivier Tebily at St. Andrews helped put Liverpool with West Ham in the last four.
The other two quarterfinal games were to be Chelsea versus Newcastle yesterday and Charlton against Middlesbrough today.
PHOTO: AFP
After a stretch of 14 games when it scored more than one goal only once, Liverpool has scored 15 goals in its last three matches, victories over Fulham, Newcastle and Birmingham.
"Of late we've been criticized for not scoring enough goals so hopefully we've proved a few critics wrong tonight," Gerrard said.
Crouch, who was replaced by Morientes in the second half, said he was disappointed not to stay on and earn his first three-goal game in his pro career.
"I was a bit gutted about that," the lanky striker said.
"I'd have liked to get a hat trick. Maybe the manager is thinking about the Merseyside derby [against Everton on Saturday]," he said.
It was Birmingham's worse home loss ever in the FA Cup, eclipsing a 6-0 defeat by Tottenham in 1967. With Birmingham also languishing in the Premier League's relegation zone, fans on two occasions displayed their anger by entering the field and shouting abuse at manager Steve Bruce.
"Sometimes football kicks you in the teeth and certainly that is the biggest one I have taken," Bruce said. "You are just shell-shocked. In the end it was men against boys.
"You cannot play against a good cup side and be 2-0 down in three minutes. I don't think we had touched the ball, and we were 2-0 down," he said.
The match also saw the return of Mohammed Sissoko to the Liverpool lineup after he badly damaged his eye during the European Champions League first-leg loss to Benfica in Lisbon on Feb. 21.
In League Championship action, fourth place Leeds United lost 1-0 at home to Crystal Palace, which is fifth. The result means that leader Reading will guarantee promotion to the top flight for the first time in its history if it wins at Leicester on Saturday.
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