Comeback win sees the Reds halfway to Wembley
Liverpool 2 Fulham 1, 10th January 2024.
LIVERPOOL 2 (Jones 68, Gakpo 71)
FULHAM 1 (Willian 19)
The game clock had just ticked past the hour mark when Bobby De Cordova-Reid, scorer of Fulham’s third goal in their 4–3 reverse at Anfield in the Premier league just over a month ago, beat the Reds offside trap and sprinted clear down the visitors attacking right wing. Cutting inside toward the Reds goal, rather than squaring the ball for a seemingly simple tap-in goal for teammate Andreas Pereira he instead tried his luck from an acute angle, forcing a sharp if comfortable save from Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher. Had the Jamaican international laid a simple second goal on a plate for his Belgian born teammate the “Cottagers” of Fulham could have enjoyed a shock 2–0 lead with less than half an hour to play of this Semi-Final 1st Leg of the Carabao League Cup, sending the hordes of Londoners behind the goal wild with delight and dreaming of a Wembley Final in late February.
Less than 8 minutes later the team’s were level and 3 further minutes on, the Reds of Liverpool had secured a valuable 2–1 lead to take to Craven Cottage in 14 days time for the 2nd leg.
Such fine margins could define a Semi-Final such as this.
Had Fulham taken a 2–0 lead there could have been no complaints whatsoever from the capacity crowd inside Anfield. Liverpool were dreadful in a first half whereby they only tested visiting goalkeeper Bernd Leno once and that was only due in large part to a mistake from central defender Tosin Adarabioyo on 5 minutes. Aside from this, the Reds only other noteworthy effort in an insipid first 45 minutes of football came from Joe Gomez who with every passing game, inches ever nearer his first ever goal in professional football and was only an aforementioned inch or two away from finally breaking his goal scoring duck. There will be an ALMIGHTY roar when he finally does so!
But if a much changed and injury ravaged Reds (Trent Alexander-Arnold is the latest casualty on an ever growing list) were underwhelming and uninspired, their visitors from London were organised, tenacious and well worthy of their half-time lead gift wrapped to them by an uncharacteristic error from Reds captain Virgil van Dijk. Where the big Dutchman dithered, Willian, a Brazilian veteran of big games in opposition to Liverpool didn’t, and after skipping a challenge or two on the edge of the Reds 6 yard area, smashed the game’s opening goal inside the near post on 19 minutes.
The visitors held a fully deserved half-time lead.
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The Reds had more shots on goal in the opening 6 minutes of the second half than they had in the entirety of the first, but the game really changed when on 55 minutes, Jürgen Klopp introduced Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez from the substitutes bench. Gakpo would score the winning goal with 19 minutes remaining after combining with fellow substitute Núñez and how the tall Uruguayan didn’t score himself this evening is anyone’s guess. It was a magnificent central striking cameo from Núñez who forced Leno in the Fulham goal to pull off a string of 4 cup-tie saving saves in just 7 minutes late in the game and in a performance lauded by manager Klopp in his post-match press conference as “outstanding”. As was the rest of the team in red around him in a second half so vastly different from the flat and uninspiring effort in the first 45 minutes.
If Núñez and Gakpo were the spearhead toward a vital 1st leg victory, this evening will forever be remembered for yet another majestic performance from Liverpudlian Curtis Jones and particularly for the incredible display from 20 year old Conor Bradley. Jones’ performance was another thumb in the eye for his childish internet detractors who will never see or value his worth or contribution to the team and whilst his goal owed a lot to the deflection from a retreating Tosin Adarabioyo (please don’t discount the tenacious tackling in the lead up to the goal from Diogo Jota too, who had a hand in both Reds goals this evening) Jones’ all round display was worthy of the “Man of the Match” award, but only a hair ahead of the 20 year old from Castlederg in Northern Ireland, Conor Bradley.
Fearless. Attacking and more than a match for the experienced Brazilian veteran Willian and 15 years his senior, Bradley was magnificent all game, a surefire permanent fixture in the first team squad and, without wishing to tempt fate, perhaps the jigsaw piece needed at right-back that will allow Trent Alexander-Arnold a permanent move into Klopp’s ever evolving new midfield for the future.
Time will tell.
It always does.
A final word from The Boss
“To turn around a game, first and foremost you need quality; to turn a game around you obviously need belief. That’s the main thing and summing up everything beyond that is mentality. We had that this season where we had to overcome real difficulties very early in the season and nobody knew how we would react on that because you cannot plan it, you cannot train, you just watch it. The boys did it against Bournemouth at home, against Newcastle away… so many moments. Tottenham is a top example, unfortunately without the result”.
“It’s not over yet. I didn’t expect to have a result where I can say, ‘We can book the hotel.’ It was clear. Marco Silva was probably here before me, will not be overly happy tonight but knows they are still in it. They caused us real problems. They will cause us there even more problems — hopefully we will be then better from the start but we will see that. It’s a few days and a game between now and then, so other things in the moment are more important. For tonight we couldn’t do really more than win the game. And with the whole story of the game, I’m absolutely happy with the result”.
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