Men against boys as Villans rout Kop kids

No dream night for Reds as two-goal Kodjia feasts on Klopp’s young guns

LIVERPOOL’S kids were crushed by Aston Villa in the EFL Cup quarter-finals. The side had an average age of 19 years and six months, the youngest ever fielded by the Reds.

AT least they were home for bed at a semi-reasonable time.

School in the morning and all that. And they could sleep well after acquitting themselves with distinction in a fixture that was not designed for kids’ teams.

But the bottom line is Liverpool, without a domestic trophy since 2012, are out of a cup competition because they fielded what was essentially a glorified youth team.

Out in Qatar, Jurgen Klopp will not be too perturbed – the idea of a twolegged semi-final in January against a blue chip opponent was deeply unattractive.

And there were enough promising individual performances – from the likes of Harvey Elliott and Herbie Kane, in particular – to convince Liverpool fans and Klopp that there is a decent production line in place.

Yet there was still something deeply unsatisfactory about this occasion, something wrong with a last-eight game between two great old clubs with a rich history in this competition pitting an under-age team against a reserve eleven.

If football authorities did not believe there was a need to have a serious look at the entire schedule, they should do now.

This was not as onesided as the scoreline suggests. In terms of possession, efforts on goal and creativity, Liverpool juniors can be proud of themselves.

But, after a promising start in which Elliott and Kane went close, they were physically hustled out of the match. Overpowered. Simple as that.

Liverpool also did not have a shred of fortune, it has to be said.

Jonathan Kodjia’s run distracted Caoimhin Kelleher when Conor Hourihane’s free-kick went straight in and Morgan Boyes provided a decisive deflection for Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross to loop over the young Liverpool keeper.

The first-half goals to follow were more conventional, one from the outside of Kodjia’s right boot, the other from its inside.

And that was that. Contest, if it ever was one, over.

Villa fans were almost too embarrassed to celebrate with real gusto and, for most concerned, the rest of the night was simply a case of going through the motions.

Not for the teenagers and the early twenty-somethings, of course. This was the biggest stage they had performed on and they were committed right until the final whistle.

Had one of a couple of second-half chances that fell to Kane gone in and had keeper Orjan Nyland not produced a couple of decent saves, Liverpool would have had deserved consolation.

But this was lads against dads, men against boys, a League Cup quarterfinal hardly worthy of its name.

Still, Villa’s seniors move into a semifinal which should provide more thrills than this did.

And it is back to learning for Klopp’s students.