Liverpool battled back from a goal down at Selhurst Park to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and they’ve been handed a tricky meeting with Championship side Blackburn Rovers at Anfield for their troubles.
The Riversiders have knocked out two Premier League clubs on their way to the last eight with Swansea City falling in their wake in the fourth round and Stoke City doing the same in the fifth. Ewood Park got a bit quiet when Peter Crouch opened the scoring for the visitors, but the regained their momentum when Josh King bagged the first of his three goals. Potters defender Geoff Cameron was not only given his marching orders just before the half-time whistle, but he gave up a penalty as well as it all went downhill for Mark Hughes side. Rudy Gestede converted from 12-yards and King got himself a second half brace to set up a trip to Merseyside.
“It is a fantastic draw for Blackburn Rovers. It is going to a fantastic day out for our supporters, the stadium, the atmosphere, the history of Liverpool” said Rovers manager Gary Bowyer. “For our players to go to Anfield and pit ourselves against a world class team is fantastic, we will go there and try and win the game. It is a fabulous draw for us, we now know who we have got, but we’ll look forward to that game when it comes around as our focus is solely on Cardiff City on Tuesday night.”
The meeting has been schedueled for the weekend of March 7th/8th and this will be the first time these two teams have met since April 2012 when Andy Carroll scored a late goal to hand the Reds all three-points after Maxi Rodriguez scored a brace earlier in the match. Liverpool had a bit of trouble with some Championship opposition earlier in this competition when Bolton Wanderers forced them into a replay at the Macron Stadium which the Reds were only narrowly able to navigate — a lesson that we won’t soon forget.
