For FA Cup magic, all roads lead to Shrewsbury

LONDON (Reuters) – Third-tier Shrewsbury Town will attempt to do what Liverpool’s last 39 Premier League opponents have found impossible and create one of the FA Cup’s greatest shocks on Sunday.

Shrewsbury’s New Meadow ground will be packed to its 10,000-seat capacity for the visit of Jurgen Klopp’s side which, apart from a League Cup tie against Aston Villa when it fielded the youth team, has forgotten how to lose.

Shrewsbury, 16th in League One, will be the second lowest-ranked survivor in this year’s competition, 59 rungs below Liverpool on the ladder.

Its presence will at least add some magic to a fourth-round draw short of “classic” Cup match-ups.

Holder Manchester City hosts Championship promotion-chaser Fulham on Sunday when Manchester United, booed off after a league defeat by Burnley on Wednesday, travels to either League One Tranmere or Watford.

Leicester City’s trip to Championship side Brentford looks the pick of the bunch on Saturday when Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur go to in-form Southampton in one of three confirmed all Premier League ties in the fourth round.

Burnley hosts bottom club Norwich City while on Monday 13-time winner Arsenal is at Bournemouth.

West Ham United will have to put aside its relegation fears as it hosts Championship leader West Bromwich Albion while Chelsea goes to Hull City.

Northampton Town, the only fourth-tier survivor, hosts Wayne Rooney’s Derby County on Friday.

Once again team selections will be a feature of the weekend with managers prioritizing elsewhere. Yet Klopp is unlikely to field the kids again – as he did for the Villa game when the first-team was in Qatar for FIFA’s World Club Cup – as his FA Cup record at Anfield is modest and he has yet to take his side to the fifth round.

While Liverpool has won the Cup seven times, Shrewsbury has some FA Cup pedigree too, reaching the quarterfinals in 1978/79 when it lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers and 1981/82 when it fell to Leicester City.

The Shropshire side also knocked out Liverpool’s Mersey rivals Everton in the third round in 2002/03, the same season it was relegated from the Football League, spending one season in the Conference before returning in 2004.

Last year they held Wolves to a 2-2 draw in the fourth round before losing a replay.

Shrewsbury has also hosted Liverpool before in the FA Cup before. In 1996 it lost 4-0 in a fourth-round tie twice postponed by a winter freeze and which came days after the death of Liverpool’s great manager Bob Paisley.

While that year Liverpool went on to lose in the final, it was a fading force. This time the Reds arrive restored to former glory and as European and World Club champions.

Shrewsbury’s only real hope is that some of Liverpool’s big guns are kept under wraps. But Shrewsbury boss Sam Ricketts hopes his side face Liverpool’s full force.

“I’d always rather play against the best. I’ve said as a player you want to play against the best and we’re no different now,” he said. “Whichever team Liverpool put out there is going to be some great players, no doubting that.

“But what better experience than to play against the very, very best that are currently head and shoulders above everyone else in the country.”