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38 min: Interesting marking from the Barnsley left-back for Frimpong’s goal. Ogbeta had both eyes solely on the face of Liverpool’s goalscorer, rather than watching his feet or the ball.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Barnsley (Frimpong 36)
Another thunderous Liverpool goal! Frimpong is so dangerous when he drives to the byline but this time cuts inside on his left foot, rifling a bloodthirsty shot into the roof of the net! Cooper didn’t see it! A great goal, fair play to the Dutchman.
34 min: Gakpo is currently playing without a boot, carrying the loose footwear in his hand as he waits for a break in play.
32 min: Gomez with a cynical challenge to stop Cleary on another Barnsley counter-attack. Yellow card for the Liverpool defender, the first of the match.
30 min: Frimpong is playing so high he is effectively a winger, so there is plenty of space to attack down Barnsley’s left flank. Cleary has looked really lively for the visitors in that space.
28 min: Barnsley are sitting deep but definitely are a threat on the counter attack! Yoganathan releases Keillor-Dunn with a lovely trivela pass, and the Barnsley striker only has Van Dijk (‘only’) between him and Mamardashvili. Keillor-Dunn shimmies left and goes right to earn a yard of space but his shot is straight at the Liverpool keeper. Lively stuff from Keillor-Dunn, who has 14 goals already this season.
26 min: I have just found out that Joe Gomez has never scored a goal in his senior career. He joined Liverpool in June 2015. Remarkably, there is one Liverpool player that has more appearances without a goal: Ephraim Longworth went 370 matches without ever finding the net between 1910 and 1928.
24 min: Barnsley twice are close to an equaliser! O’Keeffe’s sends in a cross from the right, which deflects off Robertson and has Mamardashvili scrambling, but it falls just wide of Liverpool’s far post. From the resulting corner, Bland takes aim with a long ranger but Mamardashvili saves well, palming the ball wide!
22 min: “If Szoboszlai keeps this up, he’ll get a visit from the tournament organisers asking why he’s busting their balls,” emails Peter Oh.
20 min: Corner to Liverpool. Szoboszlai speculatively chips one towards the edge of Barnsley’s area, a la Paul Scholes against Bradford City, but overcooks the cross and it goes straight out for a Barnsley throw.
18 min: Liverpool are completely dominant now, and Barnsley can’t get out. Frimpong and Chiesa are probing away on that right flank but Barnsley are standing firm-ish, for now.
16 min: Szoboszlai hits another from distance, again pelting towards the top corner. Shepherd nobly puts his head in the way of the shot, and looks a little dazed as a result. The shot was so fierce that the ball has actually burst. A replacement Mitre is rolled onto the pitch.
14 min: It’s been a quiet opening for Ngumoha, but the 17-year-old deliciously drops his shoulder to beat O’Keeffe and drive to the byline. The cross is well defended by Barnsley but that was excellent work from the Liverpool winger.
11 min: Barnsley started this game so well, but find themselves behind. I’m not sure they could have done a lot about Szoboszlai’s goal. The Hungarian simply took a touch out of his feet and let rip. Wowsers.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Barnsley (Szoboszlai 9)
Crikey, what a hit! Perhaps irked by that previous wayward pass, Szoboszlai takes aim from 30 yards and sends an absolute howitzer into the top bin! That is straight out of the top drawer, and Szoboszlai simply shrugs his shoulders and jogs back to the half-way line, as if to say ‘so what?’
7 min: Right on cue, Liverpool have their first spell of possession, which comes to an end when Szoboszlai tries a diagonal but ends up booting the ball straight out for a goal kick. The Barnsley fans cheer ironically, they are enjoying themselves.
5 min: A very nervy start from Liverpool! Frimpong is the latest to completely miss his kick and Barnsley again make a foray down the left, with Ogbeta sending a cross/shot narrowly over Mamardashvili’s bar. Liverpool have barely had a kick so far.
3 min: A mistake from Gomez allows Cleary to wriggle free and only the covering tackle from Van Dijk stops the Barnsley forward from going clean through!
Barnsley hit the inside of the post after 28 seconds!
1 min: Phillips crosses from the right and Keillor-Dunn rises over Van Dijk, planting a bullet header off the inside of the near post! Mamardashvili was caught completely cold and Liverpool are lucky to escape as they hack around the rebound!
Peeeeeeeeep!
We’re off at Anfield!
Here come the teams! Liverpool are wearing a rather vibrant pint tracksuit top on top of their all-red kit. Barnsley are all business – no trackies – and dressed in an all-white away kit.
You’ll Never Walk Alone is belted out at Anfield, where there is quite an atmosphere. Thousands of Barnsley fans in the away end are only adding to that.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot, who will surely be looking over his shoulder now that Xabi Alonso is available, speaks to TNT Sports:
We have made a few changes but a few have to play here that have played so many games. That means we have a strong line-up.
We know that Conor Bradley is out for a long time. He was progressing and getting better and better. Now, he is injured. But that doesn’t really help us either. Now, we don’t have a lot of options with the players that are out.
From all the ball possession that we have, we probably don’t create enough chances, even though we probably create among the most chances from open play.
A bit more insight on Yoganathan from Simon McGrother, via email: “He is a rangy midfielder with a great toolset. He was instrumental in getting Oldham back into the league when on loan last season.”
Yoganathan is not the only former Liverpool academy player to feature tonight for Barnsley. Adam Phillips spent eight years with Liverpool from 2009-17 but never made a first-team appearance. After spells at Norwich and Burnley, the midfielder joined Barnsley in 2022.
Some Liverpool adjacent news here, in case you’ve been living under a rock today: Xabi Alonso, the man who Brian Howard dribbled around the score the winner for Barnsley in 2008, has left his position as head coach of Real Madrid.
Álvaro Arbeloa, who was an unused substitute for Liverpool against Barnsley 18 years ago, is Alonso’s replacement.
Vimal Yoganathan starts for Barnsley. The 19-year-old turns 20 tomorrow and is the first person of Sri Lankan Tamil descent to play professionally in England. Brought up in the Flintshire village of Trelawnyd, Yoganathan started playing football aged four and was signed by Liverpool before being released as a schoolboy.
Will Unwin interviewed Yoganathan last year and the teenager spoke of both his heritage and his time with Liverpool:
“Leaving Liverpool, especially as a Liverpool fan, was quite hard to take but looking back it’s just part of football. It was difficult for me because it was all I’d known for seven years of my life. It was an uncertain time and I didn’t know whether I was gonna have a career in football or not so that was a bit of a worry, but I obviously stuck to it and luckily I was fortunate enough to find Barnsley. It was a bit of a scary period for me personally, but I came out of it on the right side and I feel like I’m doing all right at the minute. Obviously things happen for a reason and I’m just glad to have found my feet again. It’s good to be at a club like Barnsley where I can showcase what I can do.”
You can find the rest of the interview here:
Conor Hourihane, the former Villa midfielder and now Barnsley boss, speaks to the cameras:
Anfield under the lights gives us an extra boost. We’re really excited but we understand the task at hand. You look at Macclesfield and they have given all the underdogs belief. We’re going to suffer and work very hard in a mid to low block. At times, we play good football at the right times. Hopefully we’ll have spells like that tonight.
Hourihane is still just 34 and has moved from a player to an assistant to a full-time manager in just over a year.
It’s been a rollercoaster. I want to be really successful. I’m really ambitious and hungry to get to levels like [Anfield] more often.
True to his word, Arne Slot has fielded a very strong XI, keen to avoid the same mistake as at Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup last season. It still looks like a 4-3-3, with a front three of Chiesa, Gakpo, Ngumoha. I have been hugely impressed by the latter, despite Ngumoha being just 17. Anyone can see he is an elite talent in waiting. Obviously he scored that winner in August at Newcastle, but I was also impressed last week with his impact off the bench against Leeds. Yes, Liverpool were held 0-0 but Ngumoha was a menace off that left flank as soon as he came on.
You’ll notice that Liverpool also have a very strong bench, which includes Ekitike. A welcome addition for Slot with so many attacking players sidelined.
Team news!
Liverpool: Mamardashvili, Frimpong, Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson, Jones, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Chiesa, Gakpo, Ngumoha.
Subs: Alisson, Endo, Konate, Kerkez, Wirtz, Ekitike, Gravenberch, Nyoni, Ramsay.
Barnsley: Cooper, Watson, Durand de Gevigney, Shepherd, Ogbeta, Phillips, Bland, O’Keeffe, Cleary, Yoganathan, Keillor-Dunn.
Subs: Flavell, Roberts, McGoldrick, Jalo, O’Connell, Gent, Kelly, Barratt, Farrell.
Referee: Farai Hallam (Surrey)
Brian Howard, Barnsley’s hero in 2008, is stood on the Anfield pitch in the exact spot where he scored that winner. He speaks to TNT Sports:
I was chasing the referee because I should have had a penalty and I think I found myself in a position I shouldn’t have been in.
There was a little bit of skill and a bit of luck [to get around Xabi Alonso] but then I managed to sneak it in the corner. Jamie Carragher blocked off the far corner but I found the near post. I got Xabi Alonso’s shirt after the match, I asked to get Steven Gerrard’s but he had promised it to someone else. But nobody got it!
On the way back, we all got back off the coach and had a beer with the fans in the pub before going to celebrate with our families.
The fourth-round draw has just been completed. Liverpool or Barnsley will play for the right to play Brighton.
There are some tasty ties: Chelsea are off to Hull City (Liam Rosenior’s former side), Aston Villa host Newcastle and Macclesfield are at home again to Premier League opposition in Brentford.
Join Mark Dobson for the latest and live reaction to all the draws.
Preamble
Shortly before his Barnsley side took on Liverpool in the FA Cup, back in February 2008, Simon Davey took a pensive walk around the city. “I left the team hotel for a walk in the town centre and as I was talking a bird shat right on my head,” the Tykes manager revealed after his side’s famous 2-1 victory at Anfield. “I was hoping it could be a lucky omen because that’s what they say, and it was.”
With the Yorkshire club set to repeat their visit to Anfield, it is worth remembering that legendary victory. Liverpool’s side was almost full strength – Itandje, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise, Benayoun, Lucas (Gerrard 75), Alonso, Babel (Kewell 69), Kuyt, Crouch – while Barnsley had to bring in goalkeeper Luke Steele in on an emergency loan just two days before the game. While Steele’s heroics on debut helped Barnsley into the sixth round, Charles Itandje had a shocker at the other end in one of Rafa Benítez’s few changes. Brian Howard’s spectacular late winner, coming moments after the Barnsley captain was denied a stonewall penalty, send the away fans into delirium.
Buoyed by that result and another shock win over Chelsea in the quarter-final, Barnsley were narrowly beaten by Cardiff City in the semi-finals. These days, they are mid-table in League One, so a result today against the Premier League champions seems even more unlikely, but Arne Slot found out last year at Plymouth Argyle what a tricky competition this can be, as he was punished for changing all 10 outfield players for the fourth-round tie at Home Park.
The Liverpool manager has already promised not to repeat the mistakes of last season by fielding a strong squad here. “I can guarantee you that on Monday you will see all the players you saw against Arsenal, maybe with some substitutions, but then they will be on the bench,” said Slot in the build up to this game. “So that’s going to be different than last season against Plymouth.”
Barnsley will not be fazed, they have faced strong Liverpool sides before. History (or potentially a thrashing) beckons.
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT.
