Wolves1-3 Liverpool 
by Gene Sylvester
at the Molineux Stadium

FOLLOWING Tuesday night’s match between Wolves and Liverpool in the Premier League which saw Andre’s 93rd-minute winner for Wolves send Liverpool back up the M6 with their Champions League qualification hopes severely dented, Wolves welcomed the Merseysiders back to the scene of the crime on Friday evening for an FA Cup fifth round showdown.

But Rob Edwards’s men were unable to repeat the feat of three days prior with Liverpool running out comfortable 3-0 winners with goals from Andy Robertson, Mohammed Salah and Curtis Jones to please the 4,000-odd travelling fans.

With his side having been knocked out of the FA Cup, Wolves manager Edwards remained philosophical regarding the result, despite the fact that Tuesday’s win would have increased hopes around the club that Wolves could progress to the quarter-finals.

The Wolves boss explained: “It’s not a tough one to take, they were just the better team tonight — they took it up a notch.”  

Both teams had made significant changes to their Tuesday night starting lineup with Liverpool making four changes which included Rio Ngumoha, Jones and Robertson, all players who had significant impacts on the end result.

Wolves manager Rob Edwards also shuffled his pack with five changes being made which included the return of club captain Toti Gomes who remained on the bench in Tuesday’s match.

Following Tuesday’s game, Arne Slot had bemoaned his side’s inability to create the amount of chances that he believed his side’s possession warranted, and while the shot count was actually less than that of the match on Tuesday, Liverpool were definitely more ruthless with their finishing.

The impressive Rio Ngumoha carried the main threat for the visitors in the opening minutes of the game and so it was no surprise that he was heavily involved in the first clear opportunity at goal.

The 17-year-old had tricked his way inside Jackson Tchatchoua before going down under a challenge from Yerson Mosquera on the edge of the box where the ball broke fortuitously to Alexis Mac Allister, with the Argentinian firing a vicious first-time shot straight at Sam Johnstone in the Wolves goal.

A minute later, the Liverpool youngster was at it again, wrong footing Tchatchoua with a flurry of step overs before sending the Wolves right-back the wrong way, opening up the space to fire at goal with his left foot, but the winger’s shot was again straight at Johnstone.

As with the league encounter, we had to wait until the second half to see the first goal and it was well worth the wait as Andy Robertson served up a collector’s item with a sweetly struck 20-yard left footed shot that arrowed into the bottom right-hand corner of the net beyond Johnstone’s dive.

The scotsman then turned provider two minutes later when a low fizzed cross from the left flashed across the six-yard box with Mohammed Salah timing his run perfectly at the back post to fire high into the Wolves net to double Liverpool’s lead.

The match was over as contest in the 73rd minute when Jones added a third, after showing great tenacity to dispossess Wolves left-back Hugo Bueno, before showing his great dribbling ability to carry the ball across the edge of the Wolves 18-yard box before curling a left-footed effort beyond Johnstone’s dive and into the net.

“It’s a perfect response when you look at the result, but there were a lot of similarities to the game a few days ago too,” stated the Liverpool head coach following the game.