Liverpool 3 PSV 1


THE wait is over — and for some it was a hell of a lot longer than for others.

In Robbie Keane’s case, some 11 games — 686 minutes — for the goal which got a monkey the size of King Kong off his back.

In Steven Gerrard’s case, the wait was much less — under three games in fact — before he unleashed the thunderbolt which took him into an exclusive club of Liverpool’s centurions.

Gerrard’s 75th-minute piledriver nearly took the net from its moorings and raised the roof of the Kop, as he made it 100 goals in a Liverpool shirt.

But not even that could compare to the ear-splitting roar which greeted Keane’s first strike since arriving on Merseyside.

The old cartwheeling, gun-toting celebration even got dusted down for the first time since his old Tottenham manager Martin Jol banned it for fear of injury.

Last night no one was going to put a lid on the little Irishman’s salute after he had found himself more of a talking point as the goalless weeks went on.

Yes, Keane is back on the scoresheet at last — for the first time since Tottenham’s winner at Reading on May 3 — and the Liverpool juggernaut rumbles mercilessly along.

And just to cap an evening of firsts, we had a few more thrown in just for good measure.

First up was the sight of striker Fernando Torres bombing down the right, like the niftiest of wingers, to deliver the perfect early cross which allowed his partner to break his duck.