James Balagizi scored a hat-trick during a dominant 5-1 victory for Liverpool U18s in the FA Youth Cup at Leicester City.
The young Reds have now progressed into the quarter-finals of the prestigious competition with a brace from Max Woltman in the second-half adding the gloss to an impressive performance.
Balagizi opened the scoring after six minutes in the encounter and said after the game: "I was down but I'm up now".
Goalkeeper Harvey Davies also produced a fine performance to keep the Foxes at bay and preserve Liverpool's lead to set up a home meeting against Arsenal in the next round.
Liverpool knocked out Manchester United in their previous contest in the FA Youth Cup and came into the game high on confidence, flying out of the blocks to put the game beyond Leicester.
The visitors fashioned the first attempt when Mateusz Musialowski cut inside and saw his low shot held by Chituru Odunze. Balagizi then received the ball from Dominic Corness and drove forward before unleashing a clinical finish into the bottom corner.
The young Reds then scored twice in the space of three second-half minutes, Musialowski first sprinting at the Leicester backline before laying the ball off to Woltman, who finished off the move.
Leicester began throwing players forward and Liverpool were ruthless on the counter attack with Woltman scoring again after latching on to a ball over the top and showing nimble footwork to get past a defender and tuck the ball beyond Odunze on 72 minutes.
The Foxes were handed a lifeline when Ethan Fitzhugh's shot struck the arm of Quansah, who was sliding in to block the shot in the area and the referee pointed to the spot, Oliver Ewing stepping up and slotting the ball into the bottom corner.
Marc Bridge-Wilkinson's side made sure of their progression with two efforts from Balagizi late on.
With just four minutes left on the clock he drove forward on a surging run before finding the back of the net before then rounding the goalkeeper a minute later to complete the scoring.
Liverpool U18s : Davies, Bradley, Quansah, Koumetio, Norris, Stephenson, Morton, Corness, Balagizi, Woltman, Musialowski (Frauendorf, 78).
Unused substitutes : Mrozek, Jonas, Wilson, Chambers, Mabaya.
