Eriksson purrs over Owen-Heskey pairing for 'new Liverpool'

Given Liverpool's popularity across the North Sea, Sven Goran Eriksson, would not have been the only Scandinavian at Anfield on Wednesday night. Few, though, would have been as pleased at what they saw. The England manager went south purring over two goals for Emile Heskey, a livewire performance by Michael Owen, and excellent midfield displays by Steven Gerrard and Danny Murphy. With England due to embark on their European Championship campaign in Slovakia a week tomorrow, the form of Liverpool's Englishmen could not have been more timely.

Owen did not score but the way he stepped aside for Heskey's first, and laid on his second, underlined the weight which has been lifted by his recent hat-trick. A week ago he would probably have shot on both occasions, especially the latter, having suffered the frustration of hitting the post and being denied from close in by the Spartak Moscow goalkeeper. Now he is more relaxed about his goalscoring.

His dovetailing with Heskey will also give Eriksson cause to ponder. It was the first time the pair had partnered each other in attack this season and Heskey, unsurprisingly, said: "I was pleased to start up front and enjoyed it."

The Champions' League rout was Gérard Houllier's reward for letting his side be more adventurous this season. Yet "New Liverpool", as Houllier has dubbed his team, are yet to attract the plaudits Arsenal receive, even in a week when Arsenal win 1-0 and Liverpool score five. The Liverpool manager said: "Maybe people think we are not as good as them. If so, I can understand why. That does not mean I believe it. We are different. We have different assets."

Both seem likely to reach the second stage, along with Manchester United, but Liverpool cannot be complacent. They have to visit both Russia and Switzerland with a visit from the runaway Group B leaders, Valencia, in between. It may come down to needing a result in Basle against a side who held them at Anfield. If it does, Houllier is confident that Liverpool would meet the challenge.

He said: "I still cannot believe we did not beat Basle. We had 33 goal attempts. We played better then than against Spartak. Nine times out of 10 we would win that match."

If there was a negative aspect to the evening it was seeing Spartak Moscow, a side with a rich heritage, reduced to a rabble. It looked like more than seven years since they gave the then champions, Blackburn Rovers, a footballing lesson at Ewood Park. Between Spartak and Lokomotiv Moscow, the leaders of the domestic league, Russian clubs have played six Champions' League matches this season. They have scored one goal, conceded 15, and earned one point from 18.

"The level of Russian football is not very high at the moment. We would never have lost 5-0 in the past," said Victor Samohin, Spartak's assistant coach. "I can only describe Russian football as being in a period of stagnation, but we hope our new younger players will help us reach the levels of the past."

One of those was 17-year-old Alexandr Pavlenko, who showed some promising touches in a forward role before his team were swamped. He was one of three teenagers in the team but the example of Dmitri Sychev, who will soon be a free agent after going on strike, suggests it may be difficult to hold on to them.

If so, Russian football will go the same way as the Hungarian game, which only has memories to live on. The same applies to the clubs of Romania, Yugoslavia, Georgia and Ukraine. All these nations have had European finalists in the past but none have done so in the last decade. It is increasingly hard to imagine a club from behind the old Iron Curtain doing so again.