Klopp relief as Smith saves Kop blushes
Aussie Smith strikes late to deny valiant Exeter a huge upset
EXETER........ 2
LIVERPOOL... 2
JURGEN KLOPP had an almighty fright in his first FA Cup tie last night as Liverpool needed a late equaliser to snatch a draw at League Two Exeter City. Brad Smith scored 17 minutes from time in the third-round tie to rescue an inexperienced Liverpool side after Paul Tisdale’s minnows had twice led at St James Park. With 13 players injured, Christian Benteke was the only first-team star in a side with just 34 appearances between them all season. Tom Nichols slid in Exeter’s opener in the ninth minute but Jerome Sinclair levelled three minutes later. Exeter deservedly went back in front on the stroke of half-time when Liverpool goalkeeper Adam Bogdan flapped at Lee Holmes’s corner which sailed in. Though Smith levelled, Exeter should earn around £700,000 from the replay.
THE travellers behind the goal were still singing their songs about Kenny Dalglish and Stevie Heighway on the wing, but they have seen enough great footballers in their time to know Liverpool got away with it here.
A 73rd-minute equaliser, plundered on pure instinct by Brad Smith, gave them a replay they barely deserved, and deprived Exeter of one of the great giantkillings of modern times. Yes, this was a glorified Liverpool youth team, but that was the choice of manager Jurgen Klopp. The fact remains that against an League Two team comprised of homegrown talent and free transfers, they still should have had enough.
Instead Exeter looked the likely victors until a poor clearance by Exeter captain Jordan MooreTaylor gifted Liverpool a secondhalf equaliser. It adds another game to an already packed schedule, but Klopp will take that. His first taste of one of the great traditions of English football was so close to being a bitter one.
Exeter had not looked greatly troubled when, with 17 minutes remaining, Sheyi Ojo broke down the left and crossed. Moore-Taylor cut it out, but the ball flew straight to Smith who, almost on autopilot, returned it with interest.
Exeter’s players made their way back to the centre-circle, crestfallen. They shouldn’t be. This was an outstanding effort, given the gulf between the two teams, and a lucrative outcome.
What does a Grecian urn? A small fortune for a replay at Liverpool after this. The directors will be delighted, if not the neutrals.
Exeter have lost every game since the draw for the third round was made. Not that you could have gleaned that from the first half here. Sure, there were some extremely rough edges on show, but that could be said of either side, and the quality of Exeter’s opening goal belied the 76 places between the teams.
That it was cancelled out by Liverpool’s next attack was no doubt of enormous relief to manager Klopp. His inexperienced team were under enough pressure as it was.
He had to take some of the responsibility for that, of course. Even with a wickedly long injury list, there was still a considerably stronger Liverpool team that could have started here.
It could have included James Milner, Joe Allen, Firmino, Lucas Leiva, Nathaniel Clyne, Alberto Moreno and Adam Lallana. Most of all, Klopp could have picked goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. As Exeter’s second sailed past Adam Bogdan directly from a corner just before half-time, no doubt he wished he had.
As it was, Klopp had made his bed and had to lie in it. He picked a team in which only two players had made more than four appearances for the club, recalled loaned players from Swindon to Wolverhampton and admitted that before this week he had only seen some of the starters on video. ‘Not all of them,’ he added.
Exeter manager Paul Tisdale reminded the locals that whatever XI walked out, they were still Liverpool players, and not to get too excited. It was obvious from the start, though, that Exeter would never have a greater chance of sparking a Premier League upset. The game was nine minutes old when the home team took the lead from their first significant attack of the game.
It is a cliche about lower league players wanting it more — the players who want it most tend to rise to the elite level — but without doubt the opener came from Exeter’s Jamie Reid being determined to give all he could, and Liverpool’s back line thinking they had done enough. It was the 90 per cent effort Klopp dismissed so scornfully at West Ham last weekend. Reid found the extra 10 per cent. He appeared to have lost control of the ball when he stretched out a leg and whipped in a cross which took Jose Enrique, playing as a centre-half, by surprise. He clearly wasn’t expecting it, but Tom Nichols was and his finish, extending a leg to angle the ball into the corner past Bogdan (left), was outstanding. Not that Exeter had long to enjoy it. Australia left-back Smith had a shot blocked on the way to goal but from Liverpool’s first effort on target, they achieved parity. It was a scruffy goal, the product of some League Two football, the defensive quality that has no doubt been the cause of four straight defeats for Exeter going into this match.
Christian Benteke won the ball in the area — it was a rare contribution, and anyone who was expecting £32m-worth of striker to have looked a class above here will have been disappointed — but Exeter failed to react quickly enough, allowing a cool finish from Jerome Sinclair in only his second game for the club.
Yet if this speedy response was exactly what Liverpool needed, they failed to capitalise on it. Joao Teixeira — whose £830,000 fee from Sporting Lisbon made him more expensive than every starting Exeter player put together by a sum of, er, £830,000 — had a shot deflected wide. Ryan Kent also went close but the best chances of the half fell to Exeter, and they deserved their slender lead as the teams headed for the tunnel.
In the 29th minute, a Christian Ribeiro cross was flicked on by Reid only for David Noble to shoot high over the bar arriving late in a crowded area. He appealed for a penalty, hit by a lunging attempted block, but referee Stuart Attwell rightly considered the ball to have left his boot before it happened.
In the 41st minute, Exeter’s two R’s combined again — this time Reid delivering the cross and Ribeiro stealing in for a dipping header that he directed just wide of the far post.
Yet pressure was building again and finally it told on Bogdan. Not for the first time this season he was horribly weak dealing with a ball into his box, this time failing to collect an inswinging corner from Lee Holmes.
Bogdan claimed he was fouled by Nichols, but it was little more than a forward presence in his orbit really and he has to be stronger than that.
The look he received from Klopp as they passed on the way to the away dressing-room seemed to suggest as much, too.