by Finally, the Fulham supporters had a cup tie. For a long time, he felt that their big night would fall flat. Liverpool had scored early through Luis Díaz and it wasn’t long before Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno enjoyed a look back.
Fulham needed two goals to send this Carabao Cup semi-final into extra-time and it was Liverpool, who were fighting to stay alive on four, who got the assurance. He said so much when Fulham’s player, Andreas Pereira, managed to miss a pass on 66 minutes, there were applauses from the crowd.
The fans who turned up for their team’s rare semi-final appearance – just the eighth in their 145-year history – wanted to see something, anything, to give them hope. Now came. 76 minutes were on the clock when the substitute, Harry Wilson, beat Conor Bradley to cross and, after a slight deflection, Issa Diop, to guide the ball home with his thighs.
Related: Fulham v Liverpool: Carabao Cup semi-final second leg – live
Cue delirium, which got completely out of hand moments later when Wilson went on to shoot, the ball ever so slightly slipping out of Kevin Kelleher’s grasp and into the net. as they had done here, famously, during their previous semi-final, second leg – against Hamburg in the 2009-10 Europa League.
That night, their team regained victory for the ages. This time, he would create over them, the noise at full time coming from the visiting enclosure. Liverpool marched on – and nobody could say they didn’t deserve to do so. For Fulham, it was heartbreak.
The buzz was clear, the potential for a Ia night was there; at least that was the hope before the game. Fulham do not play games of this nature with any regularity and the stadium’s adverts were keen to speak to its scale; to remind the home fans of their responsibilities, too.
Klopp’s idea was to change the engine and keep Liverpool clean. No top-flight manager has rotated more than him this season and the highlight was the selection of Jarell Quansah ahead of Ibrahima Konaté in central defence. Also present at the start were Kevin Kelleher, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo.
Fulham supporters unfurled their black and white flags as the players emerged for kick-off, and the pyrotechnics also went off. ‘Dare to Dream’ read a banner in the Hammersmith End. All of these made Díaz’s early goal to kill with passion.
Fulham flickered in the early exchanges, especially when João Palhinha came to the penalty spot to meet Andreas Pereira’s corner. Palhinha was unmarked and had plenty of time to read the flat delivery. He lifted the plane high and, as Marco Silva put his hands up to his head, he thought that Fulham might regret such a chance, even if it was hardly he is sitting.
Quansah played a big part in the goal as Liverpool put the tie in a vice-like grip, creating a long cross across the pitch, right to left; the type of pass that Jürgen Klopp’s team usually look for, how they set them up.
Díaz went up against Timothy Castagne and won the duel too easily, collecting the ball on his chest and rising inside. When Tosin Adarabioyo and Palhinha came together, Díaz fired and what happened next was hard to unpick. Suffice it to say that the ball was deflected to the flummox Bernd Leno at his near post. The goalkeeper hit the ground in frustration. It was terrible to surrender.
The home crowd were desperate to get anything behind him. The rest of the first half wasn’t too much across. Raúl Jiménez shot low into the far corner and Kelleher made a decent save. There was a lot of crying from the referee, Simon Hooper, but it wasn’t because he had done anything wrong before the interval.
Liverpool were not safe in the first half. Where was the drive from Fulham? The red shirts enjoyed the physical battles and perhaps added to their leadership. Darwin Núñez threatened, almost a few minutes, but it was not enough. Harvey Elliott looked like he enjoyed the boos that came his way as a former Fulham player; he demanded the ball and tried to make things happen. Leno, meanwhile, was relieved to see an offside flag go up after tapping Elliott’s cross into Gakpo and watch the ball fly narrowly wide. It was a very close call.
Silva was in a particularly difficult position at the start of the second half. He had to drive more forwards into Liverpool territory and that would certainly mean getting more men forward. However, that would be dicey for disaster against Liverpool’s rapier-like counters. Díaz is not the type of player to be left with green grass in front of him. than Núñez.
Díaz was gone near the break when Fulham thought they had life. Adarabioyo headed Willian’s cross ahead of Kelleher to head to the left of the six-yard box. The angle was tight for Pereira and he hit his shot against the outside of the post.
Plenty said that Liverpool went straight up the other end and almost scored themselves. Núñez played the final pass and Elliott shot, only to beat Leno, too close to the goalkeeper’s feet. Leno would also save brilliantly from Núñez’s curler and the Liverpool centre-forward would have scored a smart turn several kilometers on.
