Liverpool have begun their Europa League campaign with a 4-1 win over Romanian outfit Steaua Bucharest at Anfield. The match was marked with the quickest European goal in Liverpool's history when Joe Cole struck in the opening 25 seconds for his first goal in a Reds shirt.

Over 25,000 fans then saw Steaua equalise in the 13th minute through Cristian Tanase and it took Roy Hodgson's men until ten minutes after the break to restore sanity and again take the lead through a David Ngog penalty.

Lucas grabbed a third for Liverpool in the 81st minute after coming on three minutes earlier before Ngog netted his second and his side's fourth in injury time.

Hodgson left Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher out his starting line-up and gave a start to new signings Raul Meireles and Paul Konchesky and youngster Jay Spearing.