Leno heroics KO Liverpool
JURGEN KLOPP walked away from the crowd and buried his face under his snood. He looked like a man who knew what was coming next and so it proved.
All night he had seen Bernd Leno, Arsenal’s goalkeeper, wage a one-man war against Liverpool, keeping out a succession of goalbound shots. Why would things be any different in a penalty shootout? They weren’t. Leno was the hero of the hour, denying Divock Origi and Harry Wilson and, somehow, Arsenal found themselves in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
Liverpool had enough chances to win as comfortably as they had done three days earlier, in the Premier League, but they were made to pay by Leno and, as it turned out, Arsenal repeated the feat of beating Klopp’s side in the same manner as they had done at Wembley in the Community Shield five weeks ago.
Credit to Arsenal, for whom Joe Willock converted the decisive penalty with a shot that squirmed under the body of Adrian in sudden death, but Liverpool will be kicking themselves as to how they managed to let this one slip
There was something incongruous about seeing Mo Salah appearing in this competition. In his three years at Anfield, his only involvement in the League Cup was a three-minute cameo in a third-round tie against Chelsea in September 2018. Salah had been wonderful when the sides met on Monday, a scampering and scurrying pest who drove Arsenal to distraction. There were no goals for him then but his performance provided another reminder that his game has improved a notch from last season. His inclusion
here, however, did not pay immediate dividends. Arsenal are learning how to become dogmatic since Mikel Arteta began knocking them into shape and they were more than happy to sit in and frustrate Liverpool, while looking for gains of their own on the break. It was Arsenal who had the first sight of goal in the 20th minute but Eddie Nketiah Nkewas thwarted by Adrian’s perfectly-timed challenge, the goalkeeper taking the ball off Nketiah’s foot as he shaped to shoot. A fraction out and Arsenal would have had a penalty.
A goal at that point would have brought the game to life but Arsenal did not want to deviate too much from their plan. The next step in their development under Arteta will be to come to a stadium such as this and seize the initiative.
So the onus was on Liverpool to find a way through, prodding and probing and played out to a constant soundtrack of Virgil van Dijk bellowing. Curtis Jones, brimming with enthusiasm, did his best to conjure something, at one point
even attempting a ‘Rabona’ cross.
Liverpool thought they had a penalty in the 41st minute, when Diogo Jota wriggled away from Dani Ceballos, but credit to referee Kevin Friend, who correctly spotted that the infringement had occurred outside the area.
James Milner’s free-kick came to nothing and Arsenal managed to clear but a super cross from Marko Grujic picked out Jota, who had again sneaked in on the blind side, but the Portuguese’s header was turned away by Leno.
As good as the save was, Leno should have been picking the ball out of his net but, from the rebound, Taki Minamino crashed a drive against the bar and the manner in which the Japan international grimaced as he watched the rebound bounce off, let you know this miss was glaring.
Half-time did not exactly kill Liverpool’s momentum, though. They started quickly again, hemming Arsenal back, and Leno again came to his team’s rescue in the 52nd minute when he got down quickly to save Van Dijk’s toe poke that appeared destined for the bottom corner.
This was a sign of things to come. Arteta made eight changes to the team that had played here on Monday but leaving out Leno never crossed his mind and with good reason. Arteta believes he is one of the best goalkeepers in Europe and he was about to get ample opportunity to show why.
First there was a plunging dive down to his left to push a drive from Grujic around the post. The Serbian’s shot was firm and true but Leno was equal to the challenge in the 58th minute, ensuring there was no rebound for those in Red who were closing in.
Better was to come in the 61st minute when Jota wonderfully controlled a raking pass from Jones and drilled a shot towards the top corner but, again, Leno turned the shot away for a corner.
Such was Liverpool’s dominance, there was that feeling lurking that Arsenal would make them pay for not taking their chances and that moment should have arrived in the 69th minute when Nicolas Pepe crossed for Rob Holding but, from point-blank range, he headed straight at Adrian.
Arteta, who had squawked and chirped his way through the game, could only look on in disbelief — but at least he had the last laugh.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Adrian 7; N Williams 7, R Williams 7, Van Dijk 7 (Gomez 61min, 6), Milner 6; Grujic 7, Jones 6, Wilson 6; Jota 7.5 (Wijnaldum 76), Minamino 6, Salah 6 (Origi 61, 6).
Subs not used: Kelleher, Robertson, Fabinho, Elliott. Booked: Minamino, Wilson. Manager: Jurgen Klopp 6.
ARSENAL (3-4-3): LENO 8; Gabriel 6, Holding 6, Kolasinac 6; Cedric 6, Xhaka 6, Ceballos 6 (Elneny 68, 6), Saka 7 (Maitland-Niles 86); Pepe 6, Nketiah 7 (Lacazette 82), Willock 7.
Subs not used: Runarsson, Tierney, Luiz, Nelson. Booked: Xhaka, Cedric. Manager: Mikel Arteta 6. Referee: Kevin Friend 7.