Liverpool comfortably moved through the third Europa League Qualifying Round with a 2-0 (4-0 on aggregate) second leg victory over Rabotnicki at Anfield. Two first half goals were more than enough to see off poor opposition and Joe Cole showed glimpses of why he was brought to Anfield.
For Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson is must have been a relief to get down to the business of football after a hectic 48 hours of takeover talk.
It was also a gentle introduction for the former Fulham boss into his first competitive game at Anfield against opposition that simply failed to test the Reds.
Liverpool dominated throughout in what was almost a practise game with Cole impressing on his debut and David Ngog squandering a number of chances.
After a pedestrian opening Liverpool got into gear and opened the scoring after 22 minutes. Cole floated in a cross and Ngog's powerful header found the back of the net via the underside of the cross bar.
For Rabotnicki it was simply a case of damage limitation although Carlos tested Martin Bogatinov with a low free kick.
The Reds went through the gears again and doubled their lead just before the break from the penalty spot. Ngog was bundled over by Lopes and Steven Gerrard easily converted from 12 yards.
Little changed in the second half as Rabotnicki's defence continued to be overworked as Liverpool attacked at will.
Cole hit the woodwork and brought out smart saves from Bogatinov but failed to get on the scoresheet.
Incredibly the visitor's finished the stronger and substitute Petkovski hit the post in added time but overall the result was never in doubt and stiffer tests lie ahead.
LIVERPOOL 01 Cavalieri 02 G Johnson 23 Carragher 34 Kelly 37 Skrtel 08 Gerrard (Aquilani 62) 10 J Cole 21 Lucas (Spearing 73) 14 Jovanovic (Maxi 67) 24 Ngog 47 Pacheco
Substitutes 42 Gulacsi, 22 Wilson, 16 Kyrgiakos, 04 Aquilani, 17 Maxi, 26 Spearing, 39 Eccleston FK RABOTNICKI 01 Bogatinov 05 Dimovski 14 Adem 02 Belica 13 Todorovski (Petkovski 87) 16 Gligorov 19 Tuneski 07 Fernando Lopes 10 Filhoyellow card (Mojsov 62 yellow card) 15 Da Silva (Marcio 81) 23 Dos Santos
Substitutes 25 Kandikijan, 03 Sekulovski, 18 Roberto Carlos, 24 Sinkovic, 09 Marcio, 11 Mojsov, 20 Petkovski
Venue : Anfield, Liverpool
Att: 31,202
Referee: Peter Sippel (Ger) Assistants: Markus Häcker (GER), Tobias Christ (GER) Fourth Official: Tobias Welz
