Football: Liverpool pulled out of the Cup by Chelsea – News Sports: Football

After their first defeat of the season in the league this weekend, Liverpool, very altered, was again beaten, Tuesday, by Chelsea (2-0) in the knockout stages of the FA Cup.

It would obviously be ridiculous to speak of a crisis for a club that has 22 points ahead of the championship and remains in the Champions League, but the slope is worrying for the Reds.

Beaten in the round of 16 first leg of C1 by Atlético Madrid (1-0), narrowly winner of West Ham (3-2) thanks to two goals offered by the opposing goalkeeper, then successively beaten by the penultimate Watford (3-0) and by Chelsea, we no longer recognize the winning machine which, even in difficulty, always found the solution.

Disappointing substitutes

Tuesday at Stamford Bridge, Jürgen Klopp had certainly revamped his team, with only one backbone of essentials: Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez in central hinge, Fabinho in sentry and Sadio Mané on the right flank of the attack.

But the replacements of the holders left at rest were very disappointing.

To start with Adrian, faulty on the opening of the score. Just seconds after making an incredible save on a powerful shot from near Willian, the Spanish goalkeeper deflected in his cages a shot from the Brazilian right on him (1-0, 13th).

In attack then, the Japanese winter rookie Takumi Minamino, at a fake new post and the Belgian Divock Origi placed on the left, were transparent.

Opposite, Chelsea, returned to a 4-3-3 with Olivier Giroud holder for the 4th consecutive time in the axis, had made much less turn.

And unlike Liverpool, his replacements were more than up to par, like the boss size performance of the young pocket axial midfielder Billy Gilmour (18 years old, 1.68 m).

Kovacic injured?

With his name and physique to play in a Ken Loach film, the Scotsman has shown that behind the Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount or Fikayo Tomori, the Chelsea squad still has a few nuggets in stock.

The Spanish goalkeeper Kepa, behind Willy Caballero (37) in the hierarchy of the Blues goalkeepers, also knew how to seize his chance by being present in front of Sadio Mané (3rd, 30th), and by making a triple stop in front of Mané, Origi then Curtis Jones in the 20th.

While we expected a reaction from the Reds after the break, the Blues controlled the debates and were rewarded with their generous match on a raid punctuated by an unstoppable cross strike from Ross Barkley, foot of nose of the native of Liverpool, but pure product of Everton (2-0, 64th).

The score is also not flattering, because just before Mount had found the top of the crossbar on a free kick at 20 meters and Pedro (67th) and Giroud (73rd), who found the bar, could have spice up the bill.

The very bad news for Chelsea is the injury out of Matteo Kovacic (42nd), apparently hit an ankle, in a sector where N’Golo Kanté is already missing, and that of Willian (51st).

Season finished in March?

Saturday, Liverpool will have to straighten the bar against Bournemouth (18th), before defending its continental title in eight days in a return match against Atlético which will be anything but a pleasure, even in its lair of Anfield Road.

With the title of champion almost acquired and his exit from the two national cups, elimination in C1 would mean that the season of the Reds would be almost over in March and would somewhat tarnish the joy of recovering the Premier League trophy 30 years later.

In the rest of the evening, Sheffield United eliminated Reanding 2-1 and Newcastle defeated West Bromwich Albion 3-2.

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Created: 03.03.2020, 11:11 p.m.

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