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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\n\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;LIVERPOOL, England (AP) -- Liverpool cruised to a 5-0 victory in the Premier League on Sunday against an understrength Swansea side preparing for the League Cup final, halting a five-game winless run in all competitions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Philippe Coutinho marked his first start by scoring the second goal at Anfield after the break following captain Steven Gerrard's first-half penalty kick.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a lopsided second half, Jose Enrique and Luis Suarez followed Coutinho with goals before Daniel Sturridge completed the rout by scoring Liverpool's second spot kick.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was Liverpool's first win over a top-10 side all season, lifting the team above Swansea into seventh place and giving manager Brendan Rodgers a resounding victory against his former team.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With his thoughts on next Sunday's final against Bradford, Swansea manager Michael Laudrup did his predecessor a huge favor by naming a weakened side. Only four players who beat Queens Park Rangers 4-1 last weekend started, with top-scorer Michu among those on the bench.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Victory at Wembley would qualify Swansea for the Europa League.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Liverpool's hopes of success in Europe's second-tier knockout competition were put in jeopardy on Thursday by a 2-0 loss at Zenit St. Petersburg in the first leg of the last-32.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The failure to put away their chances proved costly for the Reds in Russia, and it initially looked like being a similar story in the only Premier League match of the weekend.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Defender Glen Johnson planted a free header well wide, Gerrard drilled a free kick into the wall and Suarez fired the rebound over before he whipped a 25-yard free kick just over the bar.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The chances continued to be created and not converted as Sturridge missed the target with a close-range header, and Coutinho, who joined from Inter Milan last month, stabbed the loose ball wide with the goal at his mercy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Referee Howard Webb was also unconvinced by Kemy Agustien's challenge on Suarez close to the touchline, but fortunately for Liverpool assistant Mike Mularkey saw it differently and immediately flagged for a penalty.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gerrard, having failed from the spot in a 2-0 loss against West Bromwich Albion on Monday, went for the opposite corner and succeeded in beating Michel Vorm for Liverpool's first goal in the 34th minute.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sturridge had one more chance before the break but having been put through by Suarez his left-footed toe poke was blocked by the head of Kyle Bartley.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swansea had shown little threat in the opening 45 minutes and any ideas the visitors may have had about staging a comeback were snuffed out within 10 minutes of the restart.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In truth, the 16 seconds it took the 20-year-old Coutinho to skip through the visitors' defense and beat Vorm was all that was required.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, a well-worked goal enabled Enrique to poke home Sturridge's pass in the 50th minute, before Suarez went past both Swansea's center backs to fire home the fourth goal six minutes later.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sturridge scored courtesy of the generosity of Gerrard, who relinquished penalty duties in the 71st when substitute Wayne Routledge handled the ball.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was a blow, though, for Liverpool, which finished with 10 men after the third and final substitute, Fabio Borini, went off with a painful-looking shoulder injury. The Italian forward was later ruled out for the rest of the season.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/soccer/2013/02/17/liverpool-swansea-5-0>