Liverpool battled their way into the fourth round of the FA Cup as a Harvey Elliott stunner settled the tie against Wolves.
The original tie at Anfield was at the centre of a VAR storm as a late Wolves goal was ruled out, but there was considerably less drama in the replay.
In fact, VAR was even briefly unavailable for the game due to a power outage in the first half.
The match was ultimately a low-quality affair, that was won early by the one piece of genuine class in the whole game.
Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott picked the ball up in his own half and drove forward before thundering a long range effort into the net.
At that time, Liverpool were definitely making all of the running, and they had the ball in the net again shortly afterwards, but Fabio Carvalho was well offside.
From there, Liverpool generally succeeded in keeping Wolves at arm’s length. The hosts appeared a little restricted by their defensive shape, although they were also wasteful on the occasions they did get in good positions.
Boss Julen Lopetegui changed things, committing more players forward, and his side did look a lot more dangerous as a result.
However, Liverpool stood firm and Elliott’s fifth Liverpool goal turned out to be a very worthy match-winning one.
Liverpool will now face Brighton in the FA Cup fourth round.
GK: Jose Sa – 6/10 – Nothing he could do about Elliott’s strike and solid enough generally.
RB: Dexter Lembikisa – 5/10 – Looked a little overwhelmed by it.
CB: Nathan Collins – 7/10 – The pick of the Wolves performers.
CB: Toti Gomes – 6/10 – One of Wolves’ better players on the night.
LB: Jonny – 5/10 – Not his night at all.
RM: Adama Traore – 5/10 – Very typical Adama performance in that he promised so much but ultimately delivered so little.
CM: Joao Moutinho 5/10 – Wasn’t able to get on the ball enough.
CM: Ruben Neves – 6/10 – Good, but maybe not as good as Wolves needed him to be.
CM: Joe Hodge – 5/10 – Promising showing from the youngster,
LM: Rayan Alt Nouri – 6/10 – A dynamic performance but one that lacked product.
CF: Raul Jimenez – 5/10 – Starved of service.
Substitutes
SUB: Matheus Nunes (46′ for Hodge) – N/A
SUB: Nelson Semedo (46′ for Lembikisa) – N/A
SUB: Matheus Cunha (64′ for Moutinho) – N/A
SUB: Daniel Podence (64′ for Jonny) – N/A
SUB: Diego Costa (84′ for Jimenez) – N/A
Manager
Manager: Julen Lopetegui – 4/10 – Set his side up far too defensively early on and couldn’t get them going after that.
GK: Caolmhin Kelleher – 6/10 – Not tested anywhere near as much as she should have been.
RB: James Milner – 6/10 – As solid yet unspectacular performance as we have come to expect from Milner.
CB: Joe Gomez – 6/10 – Generally did well and even showed a couple of silky touches in the Wolves box.
CB: Ibrahima Konate – 6/10 – Dealt with what he needed too well enough.
LB: Konstantinos Tsimikas – 6/10 – Couldn’t fault his endeavour but his delivery was lacking.
CM: Thiago Alcantara – 6/10 – Not as influential as we know he can be.
CM: Stefan Bajcetic – 7/10 – Energetic performance from the youngster.
CM: Naby Keita – 6/10 – A bit erratic at times, but played his part.
RF: Harvey Elliott – 8/10 – Scored a brilliant goal and was a constant threat throughout.
CF: Cody Gakpo – 6/10 – Largely wayward for the most part but will surely improve.
LF: Fabio Carvalho 6/10 – Nearly a very good performance, but it just didn’t quite happen for him.
Substitutes
SUB: Mohamed Salah (66′ for Gakpo) – N/A
SUB: Curtis Jones (66′ for Carvalho) – N/A
SUB: Nathaniel Phillips (66′ for Milner) – N/A
SUB: Ben Doak (75′ for Bajcetic) – N/A
SUB: Fabinho (75′ for Thiago) – N/A
Manager
Manager: Jurgen Klopp – 7/10 – Made eight changes to his side and ultimately got the job done will protecting his big guns.
Player of the match – Harvey Elliott
