Le Tallec shows way in Anfield cruise

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger rates Liverpool's Anthony Le Tallec the best prospect to emerge from France's youth system for a generation, and Gerard Houllier can see no reason to disagree.

Neither, it is safe to assume, can about 40,000 Liverpool fans at Anfield last night who saw the France Under 21 forward mark an assured full home debut with the goal that settled Liverpool's nerves and helped book their passage into the second round with a 4-1 aggregate win.

Liverpool were probing for a way through the Slovenians' defence when Le Tallec came up with the answer on the half-hour, the 19-year-old pouncing on a lapse by goalkeeper Borut Mavric to score his first senior goal from close range.

If that provided a glimpse into the future for Liverpool, Emile Heskey demonstrated there is plenty of fight left in Houllier's current crop of strikers by increasing the lead seven minutes later, stretching out a leg to convert Vladimir Smicer's low cross.

Heskey's combative qualities may not have shown him in the best of lights following his part in Saturday's tunnel fracas midway through England's showdown with Turkey. But there was more acceptable proof last night that he can punch his weight as he claimed his 50th goal for Liverpool.

It has taken him 185 games to reach that milestone and it was easy to see why as both sides of his Jekyll and Hyde character showed themselves in a typically hit-and-miss display.

Heskey used power and control to the full as he swivelled on to a low cross from Le Tallec and brushed aside a challenge before testing Mavric with a fierce drive from the edge of the area.