Liverpool 1 Swansea 0: Liverpool and Milner Edge past Swansea

On blowy day when Anfield remembered one of its favourites sons Gerry Byrne with a minutes silence the poignancy of Daniel Sturridge’s resurrection to the match day squad would not have been lost on none of the 43,905 watching on.

Byrne who made his debut in 1957 played 333 games for the club went down in Anfield folklore after breaking his collarbone after seven minutes in the 1965 FA Cup final against Leeds United, remembering that those were the days without substitutes, he played on throughout extra-time to deliver the cross for Roger Hunt famous winning goal.

One wonders if reports of Byrne’s heroism in the final, rather than the words of Jurgen Klopp on Friday in which he’d stated the need for Sturridge to learn to manage his pain, was the real instigator for the player making himself available on match day.  It may have been both, but for Liverpool Supporters Gerry Byrne will forever be an intrinsic part of the club’s history.  You’ll Never Walk Alone Gerry Byrne.

The match itself started without Philippe Coutinho with Jurgen Klopp unwilling to take a risk with his suspect hamstring and the suspended Lucas Leiva, replaced by  Christian Benteke and Jordan Ibe from team who had summarily dismissed Manchester City.
Liverpool started like whirling dervishes pressing high up the pitch and giving Swansea little time to settle on the ball.

Jordan Ibe will feel disappointed he failed to get the through ball under control in the seventh minute although Bartley in trying to cover knocked the ball against the upright.
We were being helped by Benteke’s movement and ability to hold the ball up allowing his midfielders the chance to support him.   Unfortunately, after a lovely curled ball from Emre Can over Bartley and to the feet of Benteke which found him clear, his control let him down at the last.

Emre Can showed the other side of his formidable presence chasing back to overpower Éder as the frontman beared down on a confrontation with Lovren.

For all the majesty of our football in the first 30 minutes, the lack of a cutting edge in the final third meant that Swansea were going to get back in the game which they proceeded to do in the last quarter of the half where the enjoyed quality possession.
Swansea continued probing early in the second-half and as with Liverpool failed to carve out any real openings.

The game reached an impasse with the deadlock looking unlikely to broken apart from Jordan Ibe cutting in from the left and almost surprising Fabianski shooting from 20 yards which almost sneaked in at the near post.

When the goal did come Swansea could feel an unjustly treated about the decision to give Liverpool a penalty.  Jordan Ibe’s cross from the right was blocked by Taylor with his back turned, but arm up.  Referee’s assistant Simon Beck awarded the penalty with no hesitation.

James Milner decisively lifted the penalty high into the roof of the net.

Without much to write home about in the remaining minutes Liverpool and Klopp will be boosted by the returns of Henderson and Sturridge.

Liverpool will go into the Capital One quarter-final against Southampton encouraged with their sixth win in seven games and third in a week propelling themselves up to sixth in the League.

Man of the Match: James Milner – struck Liverpool’s winner from the spot and led the charge from the start and never stopped running leading by example.

Critical eye: Another game that a few months of ago we would either have drawn or lost.  Most pleasing is the fact that we are learning to defend in all areas throughout the team and we saw Daniel Sturridge heading balls out and trying stoically to mark Gomis at corners which shows Klopp’s discipline is being distilled throughout the team.

Liverpool missed the killer thrust of Coutinho in the final third and will hope he returns sooner rather than later.

The Liverpool mantra is to take each game as it comes and that is just what Jurgen Klopp is doing and winning after our European exploits was good to see.

Teams:
Liverpool: 22 Mignolet, 2 Clyne, 37 Skrtel, 6 Lovren, 18 Moreno, 7 Milner, 23 Can, 20 Lallana, 33 Ibe (K Toure – 95 mins), 9 Benteke (Sturridge – 71 mins), 11 Firmino (Henderson – 64 mins)

Subs: 4 K Toure, 14 Henderson, 15 Sturridge, 24 Allen, 27 Origi, 34 Bogdan, 56 Randall

Swansea: 1 Fabianski, 26 Naughton, 27 Bartley, 6 Williams, 3 Taylor, 7 Britton (Cork – 65 mins), 4 Ki Sung-yueng, 15 Routledge (Montero – 72 mins), 23 Sigurdsson, 10 Ayew, 17 Éder (Gomis - 69mins)

Subs: 13 Nordfeldt, 18 Gomis, 20 Montero, 21 Grimes, 22 Rangel, 24 Cork, 33 Fernandez

Referee: Anthony Taylor