Liverpool kept their hopes of a quadruple alive with what turned out to be a nervy victory over Norwich City in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday night.
Jurgen Klopp made ten changes to the side who tasted Carabao Cup success on Sunday but, such is the depth of quality available to him, little did it matter in the first-half at least.
Norwich, to their credit, started the game brightly and snapped into some of the early tackles while looking to exploit Liverpool’s high backline. Should Teemu Pukki have been in better form, the Premier League’s bottom side could easily have taken a shock lead when the Finnish striker was freed in the box.
Not long after, however, Takumi Minamino put the home side ahead.
Curtis Jones, who looked like he had a point to prove after being left out of Sunday’s squad, freed the equally as impressive Kostas Tsimikas and his cross was controlled expertly by Divock Origi.
The Belgian’s touch teed up Minamino, who slotted home clinically just before half an hour had passed.
As Norwich began to go back into their shell, Liverpool ramped up the pressure. Clear cut chances might have been few and far between but Minamino’s second was of the highest quality.
After Ben Gibson had cleared a corner, the ball found itself on the chest of the Japanese international just right of the goal and Minamino duly drove a searing shot into the roof of the net.
In the second-half, Liverpool’s drop in intensity allowed Norwich in. Josh Sergeant twice went close until the apathy in the home side’s game culminated in Lukas Rupp taking advantage of Joe Gomez’s retreat by pulling one back with just over ten minutes to go.
Ultimately, Liverpool held on and kept hopes of a clean sweep alive.
