Philippe Coutinho thumped home a second-half winner as Liverpool broke the resistance of Championship side Blackburn Rovers to reach the FA Cup semi-finals with a gritty 1-0 replay victory on Wednesday.
Brendan Rodgers’ side, who came into the game after back-to-back Premier League defeats that all but ended their hopes of a top-four finish, face Aston Villa in a Wembley semi-final.
They came out on top at Ewood Park having dominated possession, but struggled to break down the hosts, who got men behind the ball and restricted Liverpool to very few sights of goal.
Photo: Reuters
The breakthrough came in the 70th minute, when Coutinho exchanged passes with Jordan Henderson from a corner, drove into the box and drilled the ball low into the bottom corner.
“From start to finish, I thought we were brilliant tonight,” Liverpool captain on the night Jordan Henderson told BT Sport. “Now we have a tough game against Villa at Wembley, but it gives the club a good lift.”
The victory kept seven-time Cup winners Liverpool on course to win Rodgers’ first trophy for the club after a disappointing league campaign that has left them out of the Champions League qualification places.
Rodgers had said winning the FA Cup would represent progress for his side, despite failing to make any impact in the league after last season’s second-place finish.
However, it was a far from convincing performance from Liverpool, who looked like the confidence had been knocked out of them by consecutive losses against Manchester United and Arsenal.
With the bone-hard and bobbly playing surface making possession difficult, Liverpool, who lost defender Mamadou Sakho to injury early on, spent the first half probing at a pedestrian pace with little success.
Blackburn were rolling their sleeves up and keeping numbers in defense, the tried and tested formula for lower-league teams hoping to cause a Cup upset.
Liverpool had little more than glimpses of a goal in the first half, with Coutinho prodding an effort that was saved by Simon Eastwood and Daniel Sturridge trying his luck with a speculative effort that drifted a fraction too high.
The hosts had two efforts saved by Simon Mignolet at the start of the second half, with the Liverpool goalkeeper tipping Tom Cairney’s effort over the bar and palming Ben Marshall’s firm header on to the post.
However, Liverpool maintained control and Coutinho’s moment of class proved the difference.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite