Liverpool Under-21s' Premier League 2 campaign started in disappointing fashion as they were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City on Sunday.
Barry Lewtas' young Reds were given a lesson in taking chances as the visitors put their hosts to the sword thanks to some ruthless finishing in an otherwise evenly-contested match at the Academy.
Despite their appearances on the substitutes' bench of the first-team's 2-2 draw with Fulham on Saturday, there were starts for both Stefan Bajcetic and Luke Chambers, while the likes of Melkamu Frauendorf, Bobby Clark and Isaac Mabaya were all named from the off.
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Chambers was involved early on with a low cross that was almost met by a toe-poke from Frauendorf but it flashed just wide of the near post. The German winger had another effort moments later but turned and fired tamely at City goalkeeper Mikki van Sas.
Liverpool fell behind with around 10 minutes on the clock when too many players became attracted to the mazy dribble from the excellent Oscar Bobb. The ball eventually fell to Adedire Mebude and he finished past Harvey Davies to dampen the good start made by the hosts.
Bobb continued to pull the City strings and after a couple of neat one-twos, he opened up the Liverpool defence again to send Sam Edozie scampering through, but he could only fire wide from a tight angle on the right.
Bobb almost scored himself moments later but Davies got down well to keep out the effort at his near post. The No.10 ran the show in front of Liverpool's back four.
Liverpool started to become frustrated as the chances continued for City with both Layton Stewart and captain Jake Cain airing their audible frustrations as opportunities were let down by a poor final pass on a couple of occasions.
James Norris had the best chance of the first period but couldn't keep a steered left-footed effort down after City had failed to clear from a corner towards the end of the half.
The Reds had Davies to thank for keeping at 1-0 when he made a superb save to deny Mebude a second after he caught a volley flush at the back post before the hour mark.
There was nothing the goalkeeper could do to deny the City striker moments later though as Mebude tapped home from Carlos Borges' pass across goal after another sublime piece of play from Bobb.
Barry Lewtas sent on Mateusz Musialowski and Max Woltman for Norris and Frauendorf in an attempt to inject some life into the attacking third of the pitch.
But it was City who struck again when the impressive Borges escaped the attention of defenders on the left before a perfectly-weighted pass to Dan Ogwuru who dispatched past Davies.
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