You got a bit tired of watching penalties by the end there, didn’t you? I’ve never been one to actually enjoy the drama of spot-kicks, but that dragged on a bit too long — and when you consider it should have been done and dusted on more than one occasion, that just makes the whole thing even worse.
Jordan Rossiter opened the scoring for Liverpool on the 10-minutes mark as the 17-year old made his senior debut for the boys in red, but the one goal lead always looked precarious as Middlesbrough kept up the pace and they were well rewarded for their effort when Adam Reach headed past Simon Mignolet to send the contest to extra time. Suso looked to have sealed progression in extra time with his first goal for the Anfield outfit, but Patrick Bamford’s last gasp penalty sent the travelling support in raptures and the two sides into a shoot-out.
And what a spectacle it was.
The Belgian saved Boro’s first spot-kick to set his side up nicely for the remainder, only to have Raheem Sterling miss the crucial fifth penalty to send it to sudden death. By the time Albert Adomah shot wide to hand victory to the hosts, 20-penalties in a row found the back of the net — including both ‘keepers scoring past each other.
That’s taking nothing away from Aitor Karanka’s side either — they played fantastically well and deserved far more than they got. Grant Leadbitter’s delivery from the free-kick was as on the money as Reach’s header to equalize and when Bamford worked his way into the box only to be upended by Kolo Toure, he always looked likely to score. Former Liverpool defender Daniel Ayala was strong at the back and Jamal Blackman, despite a handful of nervy moments, made a number of fine stops to deny his more fancied adversaries.
You remember them, right? The team sporting the red shirts who had more than one player that cost in the region of £20mil or more in the side? It was a wet Tuesday night in the least glamorous competition we’ll play in this year, but when you’re a Liverpool player, you have to be up for it. There’s no easy matches, but there are ones that are entirely winnable from the start.
I can trot out all the old excused and even some very valid ones, but the fact remains that we’re going to have to worlds better to beat Everton on Saturday and I’ll be honest and say I wouldn’t be all that surprised — based on that performance and the one against West Ham United at the weekend– if we fall a bit short of that mark.
–Steven
