How to replace 204 goals in 332 games? Jurgen Klopp’s approach was to wait until the 56th minute and bring on Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez to fill the void left by Mohamed Salah.
efficient. A quarter of an hour later, Liverpool turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 victory, with the Gacopo-Nunez combination winning the game. Before they take the field, however, the first leg of the semi-final against Fulham is the strangest story.
Anfield falls into lull: this should be the fate of the away team, not Liverpool. Especially the Premier League leaders under Klopp, who are unbeaten in 14 games starting in their own cathedral, winning 12 of them, with only Manchester United and Arsenal avoiding defeat here.
It wasn’t until the 68th minute, though, that Gakpo scored with a clinical finish that could have been Sasha’s goal when Curtis Jones fired a shot off the back of Tosin Adarabioyo. What Salah doesn’t have, this precise pass comes from Núñez.
Before they emerged, two other first-team players were Virgil van Dijk in his second appearance since Salah’s absence at the Africa Cup of Nations and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s first appearance since Trent Alexander-Arnold’s knee problem and Ibrahima Konate all looked weak, as they often do. The defenders also include makeshift left-back Joe Gomez and 20-year-old Conor Bradley, who is yet to play in the Premier League.
In the absence of Salah and Alexander-Arnold, Klopp did not need to see his captain take the blame for Fulham’s opener, but it was Van Dijk’s feeble header that allowed Willian to dance to score. Soon after, Andreas Pereira received a yellow card for a hand-off. Panic? Little by little, so does Liverpool, whose inconsistency will remind their main title rivals Manchester City.
Van Dijk’s Liverpool resume includes all domestic honors as well as Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup titles. Willian, who has previously played for Arsenal and Chelsea, has also won every trophy in the English competition and the Europa League: a more modest record than the Dutchman, but at 35 years old, his goals and runs from the left are full of manliness. Vitality is ten years younger.
Klopp’s initial solution to Salah’s problem was Harvey Elliott, who was asked to scout the “Mo Zone” on the right side of the front line, with Diogo Jota marauding in the middle and Luis Dias in left. But the toothlessness of this front three was best demonstrated by the long-range efforts of Liverpool defender Gomez and midfielder Ryan Gravenberg. Bernd Leno’s goal later proved too complicated when Jota received the ball and Adarabioyo cleared the ball away.
Fulham’s record was 3-2 until the 86th minute of last December’s Premier League match at the stadium, when goals from Endo Waturu and Alexander-Arnold ruined the result. Once upon a time. Now, they are gradually gaining an invaluable advantage ahead of the second leg in two weeks’ time.
However, Klopp did what all the best managers do: acted decisively and replaced Gakpo and Nunez with Glavenburch and Elliott. However, before they could seal victory, Van Dijk-Konate’s axis was once again fooled by Willian, with the Brazilian striker’s ball cutting Liverpool open to create a chance for Bobby De Cordoba-Reed. , leaving Marco Silva stomping his feet in frustration after the miss.
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The Fulham boss claims it would be great for fans to be able to “dream” of going to Wembley. The defeat did not end the fantasy as his side saw enough holes in the hosts’ defense to encourage them in a clash against domestic cup second-placed Liverpool (17 ) against a west London team that has yet to win a major.
In the 1975 FA Cup final, Alan Mullery’s side, led by Bobby Moore, lost 2-0 to West Ham United, the Thames side. The club had to turn the clock back 49 years to play their only final on the banks of the Thames. So, 14 days later at Craven Cottage, there was hope that this iteration could overturn a 2-1 deficit and close the gap to Wembley, 14 years on from Fulham’s only other game. Brilliant for only 90 minutes.
It was the 2010 Europa League final, and Roy Hodgson’s side took Sergio Aguero, David De Gea and Diego Forlan’s Atletico Madrid into extra time at the Volksparken in Hamburg. game, before Forlan gave them heartbreak with their second goal after Simon Davies equalized in the 37th minute.
Fulham’s opponents in the knockout rounds that year were Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, Wolfsburg and Hamburg. In this list, Juventus were beaten 4-1 at Craven Cottage before losing 3-1 at the Alpi Stadium, headlined by Clint Dempsey’s memorable 82nd-minute winner news. That feat will be matched by Klopp’s side who beat him in the semi-finals of England’s second-biggest cup competition. Even better than it.
