Talking pointsBack to Anfield South, another Jota opener and resilient Reds
Diogo Jota’s late winner secured Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest in their Emirates FA Cup quarter-final.
The No.20 struck with 12 minutes remaining at the City Ground to settle a hard-fought contest and send the Reds into the last four, where they will face Manchester City.
Read on for five talking points to emerge from Sunday’s match…
Back to ‘Anfield South’
Just a few weeks on from their Carabao Cup triumph, Liverpool will return to Wembley.
The reward for beating Forest is the club’s 25th FA Cup semi-final, which involves a mouth-watering meeting with City at ‘Anfield South’ on the weekend of April 16 and 17.
Victory also means Liverpool’s record of playing in every possible fixture so far this season will be maintained until at least mid-April, with another four games – including, of course, the Premier League clash with City at Etihad Stadium – to come before the last-four tie.
‘He will take us to victory…’
Jota’s goal was another textbook example of the Portuguese’s predatory penalty-box instincts.
He directed Kostas Tsimikas to cross to the back post then immediately ghosted off the back of his marker before applying the finishing touch with a close-range volley.
It was Jota’s 19th goal in 39 appearances in an impressively prolific season and means that, for the second time in four days, he broke the deadlock to set the Reds on course for a crucial away win.
Indeed, the importance of Jota’s goals is underlined by the fact he has now netted Liverpool’s opener in a game on 12 occasions throughout 2021-22.
You have to accept cookies in order to view this content on our site.
Resilient Reds
Defensive solidity once more provided the foundation for Liverpool’s victory.
Three away trips in the last eight days have yielded three wins and three clean sheets. The Reds have not conceded in six of their last eight matches and, overall this season, have recorded 26 shutouts in 47 games.
Klopp has spoken of how his side needed to ‘re-adjust our defensive structure’ after a 2020-21 season beset with injuries and the first half of this campaign, during which they were not their usual miserly selves.
The hard work put in at the AXA Training Centre certainly seems to be paying off.
You have to accept cookies in order to view this content on our site.
Strength in depth
“We need today obviously a team that is 100,000 per cent ready and fresh.”
So said Klopp before the game while explaining the seven changes made to his XI from the midweek success at Arsenal.
Only Jota, Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho retained their places from the side that started at Emirates Stadium and, with around an hour played on Sunday evening, the boss sought to breathe new life into Liverpool’s performance by making a quadruple substitution.
The introduction of Thiago Alcantara, Luis Diaz, Jordan Henderson and Takumi Minamino was a reminder of the array of quality at Klopp’s disposal and, a little over 15 minutes later, Jota’s decisive goal arrived.
Never forgotten
This tie represented the first time that Liverpool and Forest had met in the FA Cup since April 1989.
In remembrance of the 97 Liverpool supporters who lost their lives as a result of the events at Hillsborough that day, Forest left 97 seats inside the City Ground vacant.
“Wonderful gesture, wonderful gesture,” Klopp stated.
“I appreciate it, we appreciate it, a lot. We will never forget and that the Nottingham fans show they never forget is absolutely fantastic.”