Liverpool started the game brightly with Yossi Benayoun, Andriy Voronin and Dirk Kuyt again showing they're all on the same wavelength as they carved Auxerre open for a couple of early chances.
After the opening ten minutes though, the game dropped in quality and tempo as the players' morning training session began to tell on them. There was no real action until the 44th minute when some clever interplay between Steve Finnan and Andriy Voronin allowed the full-back to play in Steven Gerrard to slot home the opening goal.
The second half was a little better with Peter Crouch and Fernando Torres linking up well on a couple of occasions. Torres skinned his marker midway through the second half and put in an excellent cross for Crouch, but the England striker headed over the bar with the goal gaping.
It was already 2-0 at this point. Daniel Agger had headed home from a corner swung in by subsitute Nabil El Zhar. The Reds had chances for a third but Torres was again denied by a good save and El Zhar saw a wicked shot just clear the crossbar.
Liverpool gave a debut to new goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov but the Bulgarian under 21's international had nothing to do as Auxerre were non existent as an attacking threat.