WHAT AN ORIGINAL
Divock scores with incredible cheeky finish to clinch Reds’ win
TAKI MINAMINO kept up his remarkable League Cup goalscoring record as Liverpool reached the quarterfinals.
And then Belgian striker Divock Origi capped another good night for the Reds with a breaktaking finish to seal victory.
Proud Preston made the Premier League aristocrats sweat, with a defiant display which saw them fashion enough chances to have produced a seismic shock. In one remarkable passage of play, they missed three wonderful chances – and Minamino punished them on 62 minutes with his fifth goal in four matches in this competition.
Origi rubbed salt in Preston wounds with an absolutely worldie of a finish as he somehow backheeled a bouncing ball over his own head and over North End goalkeeper Declan Rudd.
Preston were cursing because they really should have been ahead by then, but they had some desperately poor finishing to blame for their failure to write a little chapter of giant-killing history.
Brad Potts was the chief culprit when twice offered the sight of the whites of goalkeeper Adrian’s eyes in the space of three breathless minutes.
First, he was sent galloping into the Liverpool half with an exquisite pass from Sean Maguire, but as Adrian came to meet him, he panicked somewhat and blazed a shot at the Spaniard.
Then came the moment which will have Preston fans wondering, for years to come, how their team failed to breach a shaky visiting defence and write history. They had the three glorious opportunities in the space of seconds, but spurned the lot of them.
It was fashioned from a poor pass by Liverpool defender Joe Gomez, with Joe Rafferty seizing on the stray ball to allow Ali McCann to send over an inviting cross for Maguire.
His shot was saved when he really should have scored, then Ryan Ledson smashed the rebound into the face of Neco Williams on the Liverpool goalline.
Even then the ball fell kindly for Potts, who had the whole goal at his mercy barely six yards out, but he somehow contrived to blaze the ball over the bar when it was easier to hit the target.
It was a dramatic twist in a game which Liverpool largely dominated, as the home side’s possession stats so clearly indicated, though without their usual penetration.
Yet Jurgen Klopp’s side, an entirely different XI from the team which demolished Manchester United 5-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday, showed they did possess the one thing that Preston lacked – that killer instinct.
Painfully for the passionate home support, Klopp’s team scored with their first shot on target.
It was a good goal too, as Williams skipped down the right to cross for Minamino, who cleverly poked out a foot around his marker to somehow guide the ball home from what seemed an impossible position (below).
And then came Origi’s moment. As the ball bounced off the bar, Williams saw his blocked shot float behind the Belgian, who showed incredible skill to score one of the goals of the season.
The League Cup is not a competition Liverpool have targeted in recent years but, with Manchester City out, it might just be different this term.