Nottingham Forest 0 Liverpool 1
“Better than Figo don’t you know? Ohhh his name is Diogo!”
“Better than Figo don’t you know? Ohhh his name is Diogo!”
With 13 minutes of tonight’s pulsating FA Cup Quarter-Final remaining at Nottingham Forest’s famed “City Ground” beside the River Trent, Philip Zinckernagel had the clearest goal scoring chance of the night. With a Wembley Semi-Final just a quarter of an hour away he scuffed his “must score” opportunity past Alisson Becker’s post and the score remained deadlocked at 0–0. Mere seconds later, the Danish attacking midfielder was substituted and from the next phase of play, again just mere seconds later, Liverpool left back Kostas Tsimikas floated a delicious ball to the far post where Diogo Jota gleefully stabbed it home in front of the joyous travelling Reds behind that very goal. The very epitome of the tired “from agony to ecstasy” quote but oh so true on this occasion. For if Zinckernagel had scored from the brilliant curling cross of his fellow attacking midfielder Brennan Johnson to be just 13 precious minutes from a date at Wembley and the last 4 of the FA Cup, not one Liverpool fan of the Red faith could have had any real complaints.
Johnson, along with Djed Spence and Joe Lolley on Nottingham Forest’s right attacking flank were mightily impressive tonight and only pipped to my “Man of the Match” award by their Captain, Joe Worrall, who was imperious and who, at 25 years of age, has a big move ahead of him soon if his attacking and pacey team don’t secure promotion to the promised land of the Premier League. Nottingham Forest were excellent tonight and that isn’t empty praise on the back of another Liverpool victory. They were the more cohesive attacking threat for large portions of tonight’s FA Cup tie, and despite the numerous changes forced upon them by injuries to a number of otherwise probable starters. The individual performances above were a major part of a larger whole as they mirrored the usual press and counter press so adored of Liverpool’s German Manager Jurgen Klopp. The match as a whole fizzed along, was always in motion with those transitions of play that are so often thrown up by a pressing team, and of the scant opportunities that presented themselves, Forest had the better of those on offer. Liverpool’s winning goal from their Portuguese striker Diogo Jota was arguably against the run of the play and unfair to their Nottingham hosts.
But such is football and especially so a one-off FA Cup tie. There’s an argument to be made that Ryan Yates could have scored at the end of the game’s opening and breathless quarter of an hour and he should have scored with a close in header with a minute to go. Forest’s American goalkeeper Ethan Horvath was as flawless as his Skipper Joe Worrall in front of him and through the spine of the team to the tenacious pain up front that was the performance of Keinan Davis. Whilst neither team made a host of clear cut goal scoring chances (despite the high quality of the game), Davis and the attacking intent of the team around him pushed, prodded and made Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate earn some hard won defensive stripes tonight.
So a much changed Liverpool advance to Wembley for their second, and hopefully a future third visit to the national stadium, and as I gleefully conclude nearly every article on the footballing team that will forever tug at my sporting heart strings, they are still in every possible competition they entered in a now long ago month of August. Tsimikas was industrious as a replacement for an ill Andy Robertson and in all honesty Trent Alexander-Arnold’s replacement at right back, Joe Gomez, had 3 shots on goal and arguably Liverpool’s best goal scoring chances outside of Firmino’s glaring miss when one-on-one with Horvath in the Forest goal on the half hour mark. Harvey Elliott faded from the game in the second half along with fellow midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the latter of whom was angry to be “hooked”, but with the score still 0–0, Jurgen Klopp needed the experience and know how of his quadruple of substitutions with 26 minutes remaining.
Henderson, Thiago, Minamino and Diaz were desperately needed in a game no doubt Jurgen Klopp had wished pre-game that they wouldn’t be. Which is to the obvious and enormous credit of Nottingham Forest who didn’t doggedly defend or park the proverbial “bus” in front of their goal. They attacked with verve, spirit, guile and with a little more FA Cup luck could and should have been in front and leading in a game they were more than a little shading on the overall balance of play.
But as the tune that is getting louder and louder with every passing Liverpool game, “he’s a lad from Portugal” and he’s “better than Figo, don’t you know?”.
And Diogo Jota has fired Liverpool into the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup.
Thanks for reading. For more articles on the object of my footballing obsession, please see my archives or the three most recent articles published and linked below:
Arsenal 0 Liverpool 2
8 minutes of inspiration. 9 consecutive league wins. 1 point from the lead in a 2 horse Title race.medium.com
Brighton 0 Liverpool 2
Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz star in yet another stroll in 3rd gearmedium.com
Liverpool 0 Inter Milan 1
On yet another crazy European night at Anfield, the Reds squeak into the Quarter-Finals of the European Cupmedium.com