Melbourne Victory 0 Liverpool 2 match report: Arsenal target Luis Suarez makes impact after coming off bench

Following £40m bid from Arsenal, the Uruguay striker shows his worth during pre-season friendly

Luis Suarez was only on the pitch for 18 minutes, but the Uruguay striker was able to show exactly why Arsenal have just made a bid of £40m for his services.

The Uruguay international was named among the substitutes for this pre-season friendly against Melbourne Victory, and despite intense speculation over his future, little should be read into Brendan Rodgers' decision to start him on the bench. Suarez is lacking the same levels of fitness as his team-mates having joined up with the squad late due to his involvement in the Confederations Cup and was always unlikely to start.

Despite numerous press conferences in his native country earlier this summer in which he made clear he wanted a transfer, they appeared to have had little affect on Liverpool's fans in Australia. When he was shown on the big screens at the MCG, huge roars went up among the 95,000 in attendance.

There were more cheers when he finally made his appearance after 72 minutes, but not before a player whose loyalty to Liverpool is certainly not in question grabbed the limelight.

After dominating from the outset with numerous shots on goal, Liverpool broke the deadlock when captain Steven Gerrard fired in a powerful shot after 32 minutes to cap a sweeping move.

A tiring Melbourne did well to hold on for most of the second half as Liverpool made wholesale substitutions including the introduction of Suarez - put they finally cracked again just before full-time.

Suarez picked up a short corner on the byline before a cute turn took him past a Melbourne defender in typical style before his deft pass was tucked away by newly-signed striker Iago Aspas.