Friday night saw Liverpool return to winning ways with their 4-1 victory over Aston Villa in the third round of the FA Cup, which sees them progress to round four of the competition thanks to goals from Sadio Mané, Gini Wijnaldum, and Mo Salah.
It started off strong for the Reds with them taking the lead after just four minutes but were soon met with an astonishing equaliser from 17-year-old Villa forward Louie Barry – but the Reds soon returned the status quo and finished the game with another three goals in 5 minutes in the second half.
The overall reaction to the game was positive in the end but wasn’t short of praise for Aston Villa’s youngsters who had to start the game due to a number of positive tests at the club’s first-teams Bodymoor Heath training ground.
Who was your MOTM vs Aston Villa?
Sadio Mané
Mo Salah
Xherdan Shaqiri
Thiago
The Athletic’s Liverpool correspondent James Pearce took to Twitter after the game full of praise for both Liverpool and Aston Villa’s youngsters…
FT: Villa 1 #LFC 4: Job done. Klopp's men into the fourth round. Whatever was said at the break did the trick after an embarrassing first half when Mane's opener was cancelled out by Barry. Wijnaldum, Mane and Salah doing the damage second half. Villa's kids deserve great credit
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) January 8, 2021
I agree with Pearce, the first half was quite bleak but something clearly kicked the squad into gear for the second half which saw a quick flourish of some great football to restore their lead to 4-1, with substitute Shaqiri making a big impact when coming on in the 61st minute, with his two assists helping towards two of those three goals.
As Pearce says, Villa’s kids deserve a great amount of credit for their efforts during the game – with them time and time again keeping up to the pace and standards of the game despite not getting much time on the ball to show how well they can really play, with the Reds keeping 83.2% of possession throughout the match.
The win sets Liverpool up for a long time away from a game with 7 days now until their crunch Premier League game against Manchester United but hopefully the break will be a great chance to revitalise, recuperate, and reapply themselves ready for a must-win game.
What do you think Liverpool fans, did Villa’s kids impress you too? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below…