Liverpool overcame a resilient Nottingham Forest side in the FA Cup quarter-final thanks to Diogo Jota's second-half goal proved to be the difference between the two sides.
Jota's finish set up a semi-final meeting with Man City in what is already looking like a jam-packed April fixture schedule for Jurgen Klopp's Reds. Home side Forest had chances of their own throughout the 90 minutes but failed find the back of the net as their brilliant cup run came to an end.
Liverpool are still on course to win an unprecedented quadruple this season having already clinched the Carabao Cup last month. With the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals to play next month and the Premier League winding down to a close, the Reds are 180 minutes away from winning their first FA Cup under Klopp.
The ECHO takes a look at what the national media had to say after a tense 1-0 win at the City Ground.
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Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail wrote:
"Steve Cooper’s admirable and tenacious Nottingham Forest team had already slain Premier League opposition here this season in the form of Arsenal and Leicester City. Only the narrowest of margins ensured Liverpool did not follow those teams out of the competition. Jurgen Klopp’s team will now face Manchester City glamour semi-final at Wembley as they continue a pursuit of four trophies and in a strange way the challenges they face that day will no greater than those they faces here, just different.
"The statistics will show that Liverpool had most of the ball today and most of the chances. That is true. However, the really big moments – the ones that decided this game – came in a flurry at the end and frankly this was a result that could easily have fallen the direction of the underdog from the league below.
"Kopp rested players here and that was a gamble. No Mo Salah and no Sadio Mane, for example. Neither player was even on the bench. And it was a reliable understudy, Diogo Jota who poked in the winning goal from a superb Kostas Tsimikas cross with 12 minutes of normal time to play."
Ben Fisher of The Guardian wrote:
"A couple of minutes after Zinckernagel prodded wide having read Johnson’s teasing ball into the box, Jota converted Tsimikas’s floating cross. “The game was defined in two minutes, where we had a really good chance and didn’t take it, and they created one, and did,” Cooper said. “There is probably a feeling of ‘what might have been’.”
"Yates had a penalty shout when he skipped past Alisson and his leg caught the goalkeeper’s outstretched arm. The referee did not give a spot kick and was backed up by VAR. Yates then should have repeated Van Hooijdonk’s 1999 feat with a late equaliser but failed to direct his header past Alisson after an electric burst forward by Johnson. Instead Jota’s strike provided a cruel reminder of Liverpool’s clinical edge.
"That crucial, telling touch would ultimately prove the difference to set up a mouth-watering semi-final and maintain their hopes of completing an unprecedented quadruple this season. The smoke of red flares thrown on to the pitch in celebration left the ground in a haze."
Freddie Keighley of the Mirror wrote:
"The Portuguese forward latched onto Kostas Tsimikas' cross to finish from close range in the 78th minute and keep the Reds' hopes of an unprecedented quadruple alive. The goal came against the run of play as Forest were the better side for large swathes of the second half.
"Jurgen Klopp seemed far from happy with what he saw from his side throughout the first hour and made a quadruple substitution to try and restore Liverpool's control of the match. The likes of Luis Diaz and Thiago were introduced but it was Jota who found the vital breakthrough with his 19th goal of the season, which was confirmed after an offside check for VAR.
"It was far from a vintage performance from the Anfield club, who had two let-offs in the closing stages as Philip Zinckernagel fired wide and Alisson was judged not to have fouled Ryan Yates in the area. However, the result means they are just 90 minutes away from reaching their first FA Cup final since 2012."
Mark Critchley of the Independent wrote:
"What if, minutes before Jota’s decisive goal, Philip Zinckernagel had converted the best chance of the game up until that point? What if a contentious late penalty call had gone against Alisson and in favour of Ryan Yates, who had rounded the Liverpool goalkeeper, went to ground and was told to get to his feet? What if Forest had taken the Premier League title contenders to extra time, as had started to seem likely?
"Steve Cooper and his players will replay those moments in their heads after missing out on a first semi-final since 1991, though should not let them take anything away from a performance that warranted at least another half hour and perhaps the lottery of a penalty shoot-out. Liverpool were the superior side, as expected, but were made to sweat for their first semi-final showing under Jurgen Klopp.
"This was the first edition of this fixture in 23 years and the first FA Cup meeting between the two clubs since the semi-final replay in 1989, three weeks after the Hillsborough disaster. A lot has changed in the intervening period, at both clubs and beyond. But despite the echoes of history and all that has happened since, the City Ground crackled in anticipation of what was to come."
The ECHO's Paul Gorst wrote :
"It's been well over 15 years since 'the Steven Gerrard final' of 2006 and the Reds have never come close to winning this famous piece of silverware on the watch of their current manager.
"But while his usually heavily-rotated sides had never been past the fifth round before kick-off, the Reds boss countered those claims with the identity of the teams who have beaten them since 2016.
"Of Liverpool 's 36 ties across both the FA Cup and League Cup under Klopp, they have been paired with 23 other teams from the top flight and can count Manchester United and Chelsea as their conquerors in the last two years in this tournament. Both of those games were away from home too.
"West Ham, West Brom and Wolves were all Premier League teams when they eliminated Klopp's men in 2016, '18 and '19 too, so a lack of respect for the FA Cup is a lazy accusation that does not stand up to any real scrutiny when nuance is applied to the discussion of Klopp's record."
