Liverpool defeats Fulham 2-1 in the first leg thanks to a double substitution by Jurgen Klopp, who despite losing Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, helped his team rally from behind.
Liverpool defeated Fulham in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final at Anfield, coming back from behind to continue their incredible success.
After some careless Liverpool defending, Willian fired home to give Fulham the lead. The visitors were able to frustrate their opponents until the middle of the second half. Curtis Jones tied the score after Fulham wasted a fantastic opportunity to go ahead 2-0 when his shot deflected off Tosin Adarabioyo and beat Bernd Leno from a distance.
After that, Darwin Nunez crossed for Cody Gakpo, another substitute, to score at the near post. If Leno hadn’t stopped Nunez at point blank range, Liverpool would have won the game 3-1 and emerged as the stronger team overall. Even without important players, they enter the second leg as favourites to advance to the championship. The talking points from Mirror Football are as follows.
Conspicuously absent stars that are missing
With the Africa Cup of Nations coming up, Liverpool has always known they would need to manage without Mohamed Salah, but Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury happened at a very unfortunate moment. It cost Liverpool not just one of their starting right flankers, but also their most inventive player.
Salah and Alexander-Arnold were replaced by Harvey Elliott and Conor Bradley, so it was not shocking that they were unable to reach those heights. While on loan at Bolton last season, Bradley scored five goals and provided four assists, demonstrating his natural attacking ability as a right-back. However, drawing analogies between Bradley and Alexander-Arnold is not constructive. However, putting the attacking side aside, it was evident that Willian and Antonee Robinson of Fulham were superior to their opponents on that flank.
Van Dijk off the pace
Due to illness, Virgil van Dijk was unable to play in the 2-0 victory over Arsenal. Klopp informed the reporters at the press conference following the game that van Dijk was sent home because he appeared “s***.” Although they were delighted to have the towering Dutchman back for the match, Van Dijk’s comeback wasn’t exactly joyful.
When Andreas Pereira fell in the first half after being touched in the face, he became agitated. Additionally, he made an uncommon error by failing to deal with Raul Jimenez during the build-up to the first goal, messing up a bouncing ball. To be honest, he seemed a bit off speed during the first half.
Marco Silva’s game plan undone
Despite the fact that Liverpool was without their two greatest players, Fulham seemed to be playing the ideal strategy. Prior to their arrival at Anfield, Marco Silva gave his team a thorough workout, and they had a clear game plan from the start: sit back with two banks of four and try to catch Liverpool off guard.
They were superb, utilising their advantages and trying to take advantage of Liverpool’s shortcomings. Willian and Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s quickness allowed them to get in behind the full-backs with straight balls over the top, and they made multiple threats as Liverpool pressed higher. They may have gone up 2-0 if De Cordova-Reid had squared for Pereira instead of attempting a long-range shot. Rather, a few minutes later, it
Instead, a few minutes later, an unfortunate deflection combined with some excellent Liverpool pushing made it 1-1.
Klopp makes wise substitutions.
Klopp had had enough. He substituted Nunez and Gakpo for Elliott and Ryan Gravenberch in the 56th minute. They worked together to swing the game in Liverpool’s favour fifteen minutes later. Diogo Jota’s perseverance and energy were largely responsible for the Reds’ second goal, but Klopp’s replacements came together to complete the attack.
Now, Gakpo has scored in each of Liverpool’s four Carabao Cup matches this year. The two provided Klopp with the ideal combination to turn the tide of the match in their favour because Fulham was playing deep.
Reds’ greatest quality is their tenacity
This season, Liverpool has had numerous instances where they looked to be out of the game. They have developed a habit of winning by coming from behind and holding on until things change. It is possibly their greatest quality.
Early in the second half, Fulham had a great run of play as Jimenez, Willian, and De Cordova-Reid all looked quite dangerous when they broke. Just what Fulham desired, the game seemed to be drifting and the Anfield crowd was silent. However, spurred on by their aggressive double substitution, Liverpool drew deeper and seized command of both the match and the series.
In the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday, Liverpool plays Fulham at Anfield. We used EA FC 24 to simulate the match to see what might happen.
Liverpool’s predicted XI vs Fulham
Darwin Nunez made it 1-0 to Liverpool
