Brannagan fortune guides U21s past Foxes
Cameron Brannagan scored an unlikely deflected goal in the 88th minute to give Liverpool U21s a 2-1 victory over Leicester City at Langtree Park on Monday evening.
The captain’s closing down saw an attempted clearance ricochet off his boot and into the corner, settling an entertaining contest in the Reds’ favour.
Jerome Sinclair had earlier put the hosts ahead, before Ryan Fulton saved a penalty and Harry Panayiotou levelled for the Foxes in the second half.
Michael Beale named a strong side for the encounter in St Helens, which included experienced first-teamer Jose Enrique at left-back and Portuguese talent Joao Carlos Teixeira further forward.
It was an uneventful opening 20 minutes, however, until the young Reds steadily took control of the game midway through the half.
Firstly, Daniel Cleary was left confused by the referee’s decision to disallow his diving header low into the net from Alex O’Hanlon’s whipped free-kick out on the left flank.
Sinclair then saw a drive from inside the area denied by the goalkeeper, having been played in behind the Leicester defence by Madger Gomes’ precise pass.
But the striker made no mistake on 29 minutes to open the scoring.
Enrique had regularly been afforded space to attack along the wing and the Spaniard did so again, sending in an inviting cross that matched nicely with Sinclair’s rapid movement towards the near post. The finish was emphatic. 1-0.
The goalscorer next tried to turn creator but after skipping around his man and pulling back to the far post, the delivery was just behind Gomes and the chance could not be converted.
In the final action of the first half, an outswinging corner from the right by Teixeira found Tom Brewitt, whose blast at close range was somehow stopped on the line by Jonny Maddison.
As planned beforehand, Enrique was replaced at the interval by Connor Randall, while the visitors threatened early in the second period as Joe Dodoo fired off target from a narrow angle on the left.
Leicester substitute Layton Ndukwu caused alarm for Fulton when the Reds ‘keeper needed two attempts to keep out a hard 20-yard hit, and Dodoo worked him from range too.
But the 19-year-old’s best save was from a penalty.
Cleary was penalised for a clumsy foul on Panayiotou in the 55th minute and the forward stepped up to the spot-kick himself, only for Fulton to brilliantly knock away his low effort. Michael Cain crashed the rebound against the crossbar.
The Foxes were much improved, however, and eventually equalised just after the hour mark, Panayiotou flicking a header into the bottom right corner from Ben Chilwell’s cross into the Liverpool area.
Teixeira came close to a winner, with eight minutes remaining, sneaking into Leicester territory and thumping at goal – but Maddison’s reactions were sharp and he palmed the shot away to keep the score at 1-1.
The opposition stopper was helpless to prevent Brannagan’s decider, though, as the midfielder charged down a clearance by Joe Davis and the ball looped into the net, securing a late victory for the Reds.
Liverpool U21s: Fulton, Maguire, Enrique (Randall), Cleary, Brewitt, Chirivella, Madger Gomes, O'Hanlon, Sinclair, Brannagan, Teixeira (Hart). Unused substitutes: Virtue, Wheeler, Marsh.