Well that’ll be all from me. Liverpool fans may want to know that the fourth round draw will take place tomorrow evening from 7.11pm GMT, live on, of all things, the competition’s Twitter channel. The second half here was, in its way, as uplifting as any in the last couple of extraordinary seasons at Anfield. Here’s another link to David Hytner’s match report, and here follows a roundup of all things FA Cuply. Bye!
“I’m reminded of an old Bill Shankly quote: ‘There are two teams on Merseyside; Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.’” says Andrew Park. “When Bill Shankly said the best two sides on Merseyside were Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves, I always assumed he was joking,” writes Paul Griffin.
God only knows the levels of gloating that will be witnessed on Merseyside over the next 24 hours.
David Hytner’s match report has landed:
Curtis Jones knew exactly what he wanted to do and so did the whole of Anfield. It is one thing to think it and quite another to execute but that is precisely what the 18-year-old Liverpool midfielder did. Accepting the ball from Divock Origi on the edge of the Everton penalty area, to the left of centre, Jones shaped to bend a right-footed shot into the far top corner of the net.
It arched in exquisitely, kissing the underside of the crossbar on its way down and in past Jordan Pickford for an added show-stopping touch, and the Liverpudlian had a first senior goal to savour. It deserved to be the winner and it was, as Jurgen Klopp’s selection gamble paid off handsomely.
Much more here:
Everton didn’t have a shot on target in the second half. Not one.
The matchwinner, Curtis Jones, has a chat:
I’ve had a frustrating time, being on the bench and then getting a bit of a taste and then on the bench again, and there’s times in my head I’m begging to come on. Then I just try to go with it and show what I’m capable of doing, and hopefully I’ve topped it off with a good performance and a good goal.
Adam Lallana says this is something the club’s young players are just going to have to take on the chin: “At times it’s frustrating because they’re playing for the best team in the world, and that’s a fact.”
Everton should have taken control of this game in the first half, but Liverpool were exceptional in the second half. They didn’t create a great deal, but when you can stick the ball in from there, and like that, it doesn’t much matter.
Final score: Liverpool 1-0 Everton
90+4 mins: It’s all over, and Liverpool’s kids have put the club in round four!
90+3 mins: The ball is with Pickford. Thirty seconds to play. He lashes it forwards. Chirivella lashes it into the air. Suddenly neither team knows what to do with it.
90+1 mins: A shot! Sidibe crosses from the right, and Kean’s waist-high volley flies high.
Updated
90+1 mins: There will be at least three minutes of stoppage time. Everton have the ball, but what they don’t have is much of an idea what to do with it.
89 mins: As another Everton attempt to make any semblance of headway ends in disappointment and an offside Richarlison, here’s a clip of the goal:
✅ FA Cup
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 5, 2020
✅ Anfield
✅ Against your local rivals
A first senior goal for Curtis Jones! A special goal! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Xg4VVM3cIC
86 mins: Everton keep the ball for a bit but miles away from the Liverpool goal. Eventually Mina lumps it forward, and straight to Adrian.
Yet another way of being embarrassed in this game. You have to hand it to them, Stephen King couldn’t write the horror stories Everton have endured at Anfield. #EFC
— Dave Downie (@daviddownie17) January 5, 2020
85 mins: The period since the goal has been a tale of pure humiliation for Everton, who can’t lay a glove on Liverpool’s juniors and reserves.
82 mins: A billion Liverpool passes and then Oxlade-Chamberlain curls a 25-yard shot too close to Pickford.
81 mins: The only thing stopping Everton from coming back into this game is the fact they can’t get a kick of the ball.
79 mins: Substitutions for both teams: Everton bring Bernard on for Walcott, and Liverpool bring 19-year-old Rhian Brewster on for 16-year-old Harvey Elliott.
78 mins: Everton win a corner, which Adrian unconvincingly flaps away to the edge of the area, from where Schneiderlin blasts another rubbish shot into the stands.
77 mins: The BBC treat us to a few more replays of that goal. It just gets better and better. The slower the replay, the more you get to see every revolution of the spinning ball, the closer to perfection it seems.
74 mins: Jones, pushed forward towards the left wing since Minamino’s substitution, does more good work before offloading to Oxlade-Chamberlain, who cuts into the box and shoots towards the near post, where Pickford saves.
73 mins: That’s just phenomenal.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Everton (Jones, 72 mins)
From the edge of the area Curtis Jones sends an absolute cracker of a shot curling and dipping over Pickford and in at the far post!
Updated
71 mins: Pickford claims a corner and sends an instant clearance upfield in a manner that suggests imminent counter-attack, but it’s too strong, and Adrian collects.
70 mins: Minamino comes off, and Oxlade-Chamberlain on. The new player’s movement has been good, but he has had little joy at centre-forward.
69 mins: A long spell of Liverpool pressure ends with Origi taking a shot from way out which bounces awkwardly in front of Pickford, who has to push it away.
67 mins: Walcott runs through on the right, with Kean and Richarlison to his left, but his pass to your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine is awful. Throw-in.
Updated
63 mins: Everton make a double substitution. Sigurdsson is replaced by Fabian Delph, and Moise Kean comes on for Seamus Coleman.
62 mins: Liverpool are dominating possession in this half, but still can’t carve out a decent chance.
59 mins: Another corner, and Chirivella sends an excellent delivery into the heart of the penalty area, but it’s cleared. Everton try to break, but Walscott goes down over Larouci’s tackle. The referee waves play on, but with their player clutching his leg Everton boot it into touch.
57 mins: Digne pulls Elliott back by the shoulder, and is booked.
55 mins: Everton win a corner now, which Sigurdsson curls towards the near post. Mina meets it, and I think it was a decent chance if he’d only hit it with his head. Instead he misses it completely and it bounces off his back and away.
54 mins: Chirivella seems to be on set-piece duty for Liverpool this half (Harvey Elliott was in charge in the opening period). A good free-kick leads to a less-good corner, which is cleared.
52 mins: Williams, probably Liverpool’s outstanding player so far along with Lallana, drives a 30-yard shot goalwards, but it’s a straightforward save for Pickford.
50 mins: If Everton don’t win this they should just give up on away derbies altogether. They’d be better off playing 37 games a season, their players feeling just that little bit fresher and their fans just that little bit less savage disappointment. Liverpool get down the right, but the cross is rubbish and Pickford picks it up.
47 mins: Everton have the first shot of the second half, Sidibe chesting down to Schneiderlin, who curls his shot over the bar from just outside the area.
46 mins: Richarlison has kicked off, and Everton have tonked a long ball straight into touch.
The players are back out, and Richarlison ready to kick off. Deep breath everyone.
Updated
Half time: Liverpool 0-0 Everton
45+3 mins: And that’s all for now! It’s been a fine game, equal in most respects except goalscoring opportunities. Everton have certainly had three of those, and should be well ahead. However, evidently, they’re not.
Updated
45+2 mins: One last first-half chance for Everton! Walcott bursts down the right, with only Williams inside and an easyish pass to Richarlison available, but his ball is too high and by the time the Brazilian controls it there are plenty of defenders back. Then a few moments later a cross from the right grazes Richarlison’s forehead!
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we go, and there’ll be about two minutes of it.
43 mins: It looks like Minamino is spending a bit more time on the right and Origi a bit more in the middle, and this is all good for Liverpool’s chances.
41 mins: Another save, this time from Pickford! Origi, on the right side of the area, jigs this way and that before sliding a shot towards the far post which was on its way in before Pickford fingertipped it just wide! Replays suggest Origi was offside, but VAR doesn’t check corners and anyway this one is cleared.
38 mins: Now Calvert-Lewin sends a low shot from the edge of the D skimming just wide. Sidibe, free to his right, is nonplussed.
38 mins: Adrian comes for the second corner, gets nowhere near it, and Mina flicks it across goal and wide of the back stick.
37 mins: An Everton cross is headed behind for a corner, which is headed behind for another. “Never mind why Jürgen is playing the kids,” writes Peter McCann, “I am wondering why Liverpool are playing in half red and half white socks. They did this at Leicester but were back to all red against Wolves. Is there a worldwide shortage of Liverpool red strapping?” This is a fair and important question.
34 mins: Liverpool make inroads into the Everton penalty area! It’s an Origi cross, right-footed from the left, and it looks to be dipping towards Minamino’s head only for Minamino to fail to head it!
33 mins: Jones collects a throw-in on the left, spins, heads infield and lashes a low shot wide of the near post. Liverpool are making no inroads into the Everton penalty area, but are having the occasional shooting chance from outside it.
31 mins: Walcott crosses from the right, and Calvert-Lewin dives for the header but can’t get enough on it, the ball brushing the top of his head on its way past!
Updated
28 mins: Richarlison steals the ball from Minamino with an excellent tackle. He may have just missed a very good chance, but otherwise he’s been doing a fine defensive job, playing deep on the left.
27 mins: Another Adrian save! Walcott pulls back a low cross from the right, and Richarlison sprints from far post to near to reach it first and turn it goalwards, but again Adrian saves with his legs! That’s three excellent chances for Everton, and the Liverpool goalkeeper has been in the right place every time.
Updated
26 mins: From a half-cleared corner, Wiliams’ shot is deflected wide. The referee doesn’t spot the deflection, though, so it’s a goal kick.
24 mins: An excellent spell from Liverpool, featuring another fine Neco Williams cross and ending when Holgate comes across to cut out the ball as Lallana bursts into the box.
20 mins: Lallana’s 20-yarder curls well wide. Meanwhile Richarlison, collateral damage in a perfectly-timed Nathaniel Phillips challenge a couple of minutes back, seems to be limping a bit.
17 mins: Holgate lifts a pass through to Walcott, but it’s overhit. The visitors do look the side most likely at the moment, but there’s not a lot in it.
14 mins: Neco Williams curls in a fabulous cross from the right. It’s cleared just before Origi reaches it, but still, top crossing.
12 mins: Another Adrian save! Everton win a free-kick on the right, and as Sigurdsson curls it into the area somehow there are five blue shirts and only two in red tracking them. Holgate is the one who reaches it first, and it’s a fabulous chance that he heads straight at the keeper!
Updated
9 mins: Milner was the defender who got back to pester Walcott and stop him from having an easy chance, but it seems he pulled a muscle in doing so. Yasser Larouci, the 19-year-old Algerian, replaces him.
7 mins: Now Milner is down and shaking his head, and has already passed on the captain’s armband. Clearly he feels his game is over.
6 mins: Save! The ball is played through to Walcott, and though it bounces unkindly and he’s unable to bring it under control it is deflected back to Calvert-Lewin, whose low, hard shot from 15 yards hits Adrian’s legs!
4 mins: Now Liverpool win the ball with a bit of intense pressing, but when it’s crossed from the right it bounces under Origi’s boot and out of play on the other flank.
3 mins: Digne volleys a cross from the left that is a bit too ferocious for Sidibe to control as he bursts unmarked into the box.
2 mins: There was much talk pre-match of Everton playing a back three, with Coleman as the right-sided centre-back. However, they’ve started with a four.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! They’re off! Minamino’s first touch for Liverpool sends the ball rolling back to Joe Gomez. Liverpool are attacking the Kop in the first half.
The players are on their way out. The ground looks packed and sounds raucous. Could Everton finally end their Anfield hoodoo this afternoon? We’re about to find out!
Updated
Carlo Ancelotti has also submitted to a BBC interrogation:
It’s exciting. For me it’s a first derby, so I’m excited. The competition is really important also. I know how the supporters love this competition. We are trying to move on, to play a good game, to give happiness to our supporters, so we have a lot of motivation for this game. I think we have to be focused to play a good game, to play to win. They have made a lot of changes, they have their reasons and we have to be focused on our game. I’ve tried just to put some new ideas on the pitch, some new ideas on training, but nothing special. In football there are no secrets. Sometimes, some managers want to complicate it but honestly it’s an easy life, and it should be an easy life also for the players.
Jurgen Klopp has a chat with the BBC:
We don’t really think about how the other derbies have been, all completely different, different manager on the other side especially which makes a big difference. You never get a guarantee, but we see there’s a bit opportunity and it’s what we want to show. I saw the line-ups of Chelsea for example and they made nine changes but I was like, ‘That’s a nice line-up!’” Ours is obviously not that experienced, that’s clear, but we trust the boys 100%.
What I want from today is a team who is 100% excited about the opportunity. I don’t think there’s any team in world football who wants to play this game more than this team today. And Lallana and James Milner want to play football at 4 o’clock in the morning or at midnight, whatever, they always want to play football, and all the other guys, for them it’s a big, big opportunity and I really like that. If one or two things don’t work out it’s my responsibility, simple as that, so I hope they feel that freedom and go for it.
Hello everyone, Simon here, stepping in for the remainder of this one. With Liverpool obviously focusing in different directions, this is a fabulous opportunity for Everton to bank their first Anfield win since the mesolithic era, but there’s enough talent in the home ranks to make it more than interesting.
Everton, meanwhile, will likely not have forgotten being dumped out by their rivals at the same stage, in the same stadium, two years ago. That was Virgil van Dyke’s debut, and as such the beginning of a new era at Anfield. They will be glad not to have to face the Dutchman today, but less pleased about the presence of Divock Origi, who has five goals in four outings in this fixture.
That said, they’ll surely fancy themselves to bloody their neighbours’ noses here, especially under a manager who has one more FA Cup on his CV than Jurgen Klopp. Ancelotti’s refusal to grant Moise Kean a rare start ahead of the in-form duo Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison is a declaration of intent: Everton are here to win.
Updated
Of course, Liverpool’s young lads have already been given a taste of top-level football with that absurd, seesawing penalty shootout win against Arsenal earlier in the season. That was magnificent entertainment all round, but not the sort of performance you’d want to be replicating too often. This fixture comes with the added pressure of being a notoriously spicy derby fixture under the lights, so cool heads will be required.
Well then. A bit of a pick-and-mix selection from Jurgen Klopp, who has entrusted senior players like James Milner and Adam Lallana to help coach the likes of Neco Williams and Curtis Jones (both 18) through the game. The pick of Liverpool’s youngsters, though, is winger Harvey Elliott – yet all eyes will be on debutant Takumi Minamino, who’ll be looking to replicate his lively recent Champions League performances against, er, Liverpool.
As for Everton, Carlo Ancelotti has picked a much stronger lineup, and that striking partnership of Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin – who have scored a goal a game between them over December – will be hoping to get some joy against a Liverpool backline continuing two youngsters. Gylfi Sigursson, too, will surely be looking to sneak into space behind a Liverpool midfield that features no holding player of any real pedigree.
Updated
Team news!
Liverpool: Adrian; Milner, Gomez, Phillips, Williams; Lallana, Chirivella, Jones, Elliott; Minamino, Origi.
Subs: Kelleher, Mane, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Brewster, Hoever, Larouci.
Everton: Pickford; Mina, Holgate, Coleman, Digne; Sigurdsson, Schneiderlin, Sidibe, Walcott; Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Stekelenberg, Baines, Keane, Delph, Bernard, Davies, Kean.
Updated
