Liverpool on Sunday let a 2-0 lead slip as League One Shrewsbury Town earned a FA Cup fourth-round replay at Anfield thanks to a 2-2 draw, while Manchester United and Manchester City cruised into the fifth round.
Juergen Klopp showed his focus is very much on a first English Premier League title for 30 years as he made 11 changes to the side that won at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday last week, and he confirmed that he would name an even younger side for the replay as it falls days into Liverpool’s two-week winter break from league action.
“I have said to the boys already, two weeks ago, that we will have a winter break, so it means we will not be there,” said Klopp, who plans to let under-23 coach Neil Critchley take charge of the game. “It will be the kids who play that game.”
Photo: Reuters
Despite a calm finish from 18-year-old Curtis Jones to open the scoring on 15 minutes, Liverpool never settled as Shrewsbury missed a host of chances to level before halftime.
A freak own-goal from Donald Love then doubled the visitors’ lead a minute into the second half, but the Shrews did not give up on their chance to shock the European champions and were given a lifeline when substitute Jason Cummings converted a penalty.
Cummings then sent Montgomery Waters Meadow into raptures by slotting low under Adrian 15 minutes from time.
“It was a dream come true against the best team in the world. Going to Anfield is what it’s all about,” Cummings said.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was badly in need of a convincing performance after 2-0 defeats to Liverpool and Burnley over the previous seven days and got a response with a 6-0 thrashing of third-tier Tranmere Rovers.
Many tipped the Red Devils to get bogged down on a sandy surface at Prenton Park, but a flying start thanks to a host of unlikely goalscorers ensured there was no chance of an upset.
“This game was one where everyone apart from Man United fans wanted us to lose,” Solskjaer said.”It’s been a bit of pressure on them, but they’ve enjoyed it. It was a difficult pitch, but we went about it the right way — just worked hard, played simple, but effective, and played the right way.”
Captain Harry Maguire led by example by striding forward to smash home his first goal for the club, before Diogo Dalot also grabbed his first United goal and Jesse Lingard curled home to make it three goals in a six-minute spell.
Phil Jones then nodded home his first United effort since 2014 and Anthony Martial’s deflected strike made it five before halftime.
Solskjaer could then afford the luxury of resting Martial, Maguire and Nemanja Matic for most of the second half ahead of tomorrow’s attempt to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Manchester City in their EFL Cup semi-final.
Tahith Chong was one of those introduced and he was brought down by Tranmere goalkeeper Scott Davies, allowing Mason Greenwood to score United’s sixth from the penalty spot.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola hopes more fans show up at the Etihad Stadium for tomorrow’s derby after questioning why there were 15,000 empty seats for his side’s 4-0 stroll past Fulham.
“Hopefully, more people can come than today, hopefully [they] can support us more,” Guardiola said. “I don’t know the reason why, but it was not full.”
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