« on: April 16, 2022, 02:17:41 pm »
LIVERPOOL VS MANCHESTER CITY
FA CUP - SEMI FINAL
16TH APRIL, 2022
WEMBLEY STADIUM, LONDON
I’m still reeling and to a large extent recovering from the league clash last Sunday at the Etihad.
All the build-up and hype, all the anxiety in the lead up and during the match left me drained and exhausted.
The first half performance on the night obviously didn’t help and in the end I think most of our fan base were relieved that we picked up a point and kept ourselves within striking distance in the title race, should Manchester City slip up.
Both teams then played fairly contrasting Champions League Quarter-Final second legs.
Klopp made plenty of changes to his starting XI and used the squad at his disposal to the fullest after the Reds had earned the privilege by winning 1-3 in Portugal last week.
City on the other had ‘endured’ arguably one of the toughest tests in European football, away to Atletico Madrid in a Champions League knock out tie. But fair play to them. They hung in there and even with a bloody nose they scraped through.
Atletico did what they do best. From snide fouls to full on assault. From head butts to hand bags, Simeone’s men certainly took a bite out of City, even if they couldn’t find the all-important equalizer and progress.
We all would have loved extra time and penalties, but hopefully the other team from Madrid can finish the job off in early May and kill their dream of a first Champions League title.
WE GO AGAIN!
Focus now shifts to the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.
It’s unchartered territory for this team as they have never played in an FA Cup semi-final. Our opponents on Saturday on the other hand won the FA Cup as recently as the 2018-19 season.
Over the last decade or so, there’s been a narrative that the domestic cups are no longer important to the big clubs and their value has declined in recent years. I personally think it’s a lot of bollox. Wining the league cup last month gave me a lot of joy as a Liverpool fan and winning another FA Cup title will be equally sweet.
MY FIRST EVER MATCH
In fact, I have always loved the FA Cup for the history and tradition.
1988 was a special year in my life. It was the year, I moved to London, England from Delhi, India as an 8 years old thanks to my old man getting transferred to his company’s London office for a 3 year posting.
Growing up in Delhi, I was a regular Indian kid, hooked onto cricket. Football or any other sport wasn’t really on my radar. I played cricket most evenings in the local park with my friends and watched it on TV whenever it was on.
But the move to London in the first week of March, 1988 changed all that in a matter of weeks. I now had access to 24-hour television, which wouldn’t be available back home in India for another 4 years.
I would say I truly discovered sports and ‘my love’ for sports after moving to England. The first ever football match that I saw live on TV was an FA Cup encounter between Manchester City and Liverpool on the 13th of March, 1988 at Maine Road. The match was live on ITV on a show called ‘The Big Match’.
I had never seen a football match on TV before this. And what a first match to watch.
As an 8-year-old, it definitely left an impression. When the match started, I didn’t know anything about the teams, I didn’t know anything about the FA Cup, but by the end of the 90 minutes, I knew the team in Red was a good team. (Liverpool had thrashed Man City 0-4 at Maine Road)
I remember our landlord talking to me later that evening and telling me how Liverpool (or the team in Red as I described them) was the dominant team in the country at the time. He told me he was a fan and if I wanted to follow Football, then I should follow it through Liverpool.
It’s fair to say I didn’t need too much convincing. I followed Liverpool for the rest of the season from a distance in London, but with an interest that over the years became a full blown obsession and continues to this day in my early forties. It was hard not to fall in Love with Liverpool.
When I now look back at all the different Liverpool teams that I have seen, the 1987-88 team is still arguably one of the finest assembled in our history. The league title was a procession and had it not been for one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup final history, we would have won our 2nd League and Cup double.
Despite, that loss to Wimbledon, the vintage of 87-88 won 32 games, kept 27 clean sheets and scored a whopping 99 goals. There are similarities to the current team, especially when it comes to the dominance on the pitch and the fear we instill in the opposition.
DOMINANT AND FEARSOME (THE MENTALITY MONSTERS ARE BACK)
Since the start of 2022, Liverpool have been the team to beat. The 1-0 loss to Inter Milan in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16, has been the only loss of the calendar year so far. It’s this form that has all of us dreaming of an unlikely quadruple. As a fan base, we have always wanted our managers and our teams to ‘Make Us Dream’ and the current lot, under Klopp are doing just that. What a time to be a Red!
This will be Jurgen’s first FA Cup semi-final with us. He’s never led us this far in the top domestic cup competition.
SEASON FA CUP ROUND OPPONENTS
2015-16 4TH ROUND WEST HAM UTD
2016-17 4TH ROUND WOLVES
2017-18 4TH ROUND WEST BROM
2018-19 3RD ROUND WOLVES
2019-20 5TH ROUND CHELSEA
2020-21 4TH ROUND MAN UTD
There has been some talk about Klopp not prioritizing the domestic cups in the past, but I personally don’t think that’s been the case. I just don’t think we had a competitive enough squad, especially in Klopp’s early seasons where we could rotate to give first team players a bit of a rest and still come out on top against what almost always was a premier league opponent.
We had a strong first XI, but the rotation options weren’t always up to the mark.
It also didn’t help that teams with their name beginning with 'W' seemed to have the wood over us. West Ham, Wolves (twice) and West Brom knocked us out of the FA Cup in Klopp’s first 4 seasons. The following two seasons we got blockbuster ties against Chelsea and Manchester United.
Our squad now is second to none. Some would say, we currently have the best squad in the league and have superb replacements all over the park, barring a couple of positions. This has allowed us to rotate heavily in the domestic cups early on and still maintain the quality of our performances.
After winning the League Cup, I think all the talk about the Quadruple has galvanized the squad rather than put pressure on them. Everyone knows this squad is full of mentality monsters and after having tasted success over the last few seasons, they are hungry for more. They know a double or a treble this season will cement this team and this squad’s legacy. But win the mythical quadruple and they will go down as not just the best team in Liverpool’s history, but the best team in England’s history.
There are a lot of miles to cover before we can go down that road of course, so let’s not get carried away.
I’m actually glad that we got Manchester City in the semi-final. It keeps everything on edge and bubbling nicely for the title run-in. It also means that neither us nor City get an undue advantage in the title run-in.
HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
LIVERPOOL WINS DRAWS MAN CITY WINS
3 2 2
Our FA Cup record against The Citizens isn’t all that bad. They have always needed a replay to beat us in the FA Cup, with their last win against us coming way back in 1973.
Since then, Liverpool have never lost to City in three subsequent meetings. We hammered them by 4 goals at Maine Road in 1988. Nearly two decades later, we thrashed them 4-2 at Anfield en route to the Cup Treble of 2001. The last time the two sides met in the FA Cup was back in 2003, when Liverpool won 0-1 away from home. Danny Murphy scored the decisive goal from the spot a minute into the second half. That game was also the last FA Cup match that City played at Maine Road.
This season both sides have had a fairly comfortable route to the last 4.
LIVERPOOL’S ROAD TO THE SEMI-FINAL
3rd Round Liverpool 4-1 Shrewsbury Town
4th Round Liverpool 3-1 Cardiff City
5th Round Liverpool 2-1 Norwich City
6th Round Forest 0-1 Liverpool
MANCHESTER CITY’S ROAD TO THE SEMI-FINAL
3rd Round Swindon Town 1-4 Man City
4th Round Man City 4-1 Fulham
5th Round Peterborough 0-2 Man City
6th Round Southampton 1-4 Man City
Both teams have faced only one Premier League team in the competition so far.
Liverpool beat Norwich in the 5th round, while City dispatched Southampton in the Quarter Final.
City have mostly played away from home, while Liverpool have played 3 of their 4 games at Anfield.
We have scored 10 goals in the FA Cup, while City have managed a total of 14 goals, with 4-1 being their favourite score line.
Both teams have only managed to keep 1 clean sheet in their 4 matches.
INJURY CONCERNS
Liverpool have pretty much a fully available squad to choose from (touchwood) at the moment and Klopp confirmed this when speaking to reporters at Anfield after reaching the last four of the Champions League.
“Diogo got a knock in the first half, I don’t know about Mo. Nobody told me yet. The two physios, nobody said to me Mo has a problem. At the moment, everybody should be fine."
As for City, Pep seemed to suggest doom and gloom on the injury front after the game in Madrid.
"We are in big trouble, we played three days ago, now have a lot of injuries, I don't know what will happen in the next weeks.”
No one will be surprised if and when KDB and Walker are in the squad on Saturday.
Given the amount of football both teams have played and the schedule to come, I think it’s going to be difficult to predict the starting XI’s of both teams.
IN CONCLUSION
I’m desperate for us to win the FA Cup this season. Not because it will take us one step closer to the quadruple, but because, it will complete the full set of domestic honours for Klopp and his mentality monsters.
I’m going to predict a free flowing, edge of the seat, 2-1 victory for the mighty Redmen, with Luis Diaz and Mo getting on the scoresheet and the quadruple dream well and truly on track.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2022, 05:20:09 pm by TepidT2O »
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“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
“Generosity always pays off. Generosity in your effort, in your work, in your kindness, in the way you look after people and take care of people. In the long run, if you are generous with a heart, and with humanity, it always pays off.”
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