Ogbonna delivers late late extra time hammer blow to Liverpool’s FA cup dream - West Ham 2 Liverpool 1

West Ham 2 Liverpool 1

Blog by David Douglas (dedlfc)

Pre-match: We again go into a match with our out of form Mignolet in goal after bringing back loanee Danny Ward from his impressive loan spell at Aberdeen but amazingly have not even given him a game. He again sits on the bench where it may have benefitted us longer term to have left him out on loan playing every week at Aberdeen. The very talented Chirivella gets his first senior start for us. Nice to see Flanagan get another game again, and hopefully Sturridge and/or Origi can get back in action. West Ham have put out a pretty strong side, but that didn't stop us last time!
 

We start out on the front foot during the opening spell. Teixeira and Coutinho have shown some decent interplay. Brad Smith put in what should have been a dangerous cross, but Ibe was slow to respond and the ball was cleared without worrying the Hammers too much. Ibe then put in Benteke a few minutes later, who seemed legitimately lost and confused about being alone in the box. He immediately squared it to a West Ham defender, crisis averted.

Coutinho puts in too consecutive excellent corners, both of which found Benteke at the back post. Neither led to a goal, but it was nice to see! Just don’t understand how a striker (Beneteke) with a 1 goal out of 2 games strike rate throughout his career doesn’t do a near post run when a ball is crossed.

Because none of our attacks goes unpunished, the Hammers nearly score on the counter. The strike is deflected off Lucas and off the near post. Despite being the best side so far, we are lucky to still be on level terms.

Brad Smith then provides a brilliant overlap and produces a cross flashed across the 6-yard box. The ball passes both a stationary Benteke and an unprepared Ibe and the chance is gone. Should definitely have been 1-0 there. 

Minutes later the impressive offensively Smith overlaps to great effect again, his errant cross bounces to a wide open Teixeira who drags his shot wide. All of these great missed chances are going to be much more painful to remember if West Ham score on their first shot on target as is our usual Achilles heel recently.

Coutinho pounces on an errant pass and sets off a 3-on-2 break away. His pass to Benteke is deep, but the big Belgian cuts it back to Coutinho who duly hits the upright – very unlucky!

Payet hits the post from a free kick, and--surprise!--Mignolet makes a save on the rebound. Replays show that Migs might have just have got a finger to the initial free kick to touch it onto the post. Crazy game this, West Ham 0, Liverpool 0, Goalpost 3. 

GOAL. As per usual when we are in control of a game we then proceed to conceded the first goal of the game, you just had a feeling this was coming! Cross from West Ham’s left wing gets a deflection and finds Antonio at the back post, who volleys it home. 1-0 to the Hammers. Brad Smith who has been excellent going forward was out of position defensively (maybe due to the deflection) to stop the cross from finding Antonio for that goal.

Halftime: An otherwise good first half undone by the Hammers breaking the deadlock right before stoppage time. The good news is that Liverpool have looked very lively so far, though, to be fair, both sides have had their chances. Benteke has had three free headers in the box off corners, and failed to score on any of them. Brad Smith might have been to blame for leaving Antonio unmarked on the goal, but conversely, he should probably have two assists if we had attacking players attacking dangerous areas where crosses should be going. 

Early in the second half we get a free kick through good hold up play from Benteke in a dangerous area. Too bad we don't have a kicker who can score from a direct free kick!!

GOAL! Never mind! Coutinho cheekily hits the ball under the wall, and the free kick rolls into the back of the net. We're back on level terms, 1-1. Welcome back to our little magician!!!

Brad Smith with another excellent cross into the box. And for the umpteenth time, no one attacking the near or far posts. It is something that needs to be worked at.

Flappy Waffles is back. Mignolet comes way out of goal and makes a real mess of an attempted catch. Somehow we're not punished for that. We probably should have been punished for that. He is such a poor keeper it is shocking he has been given a five year contract to reward failure.

The moment then arrives our best player Sturridge finally makes an appearance as a sub returning to the fold after his two month injury absence alongside Origi in place of Teixeira and Coutinho. 

Our manager Jurgen Klopp said he was going to be calm today after his emergency appendix operation at the weekend but that was short-lived as he starts berating the 4th official, as you do. Our manager is a gem – one of a kind !!!

Ilori gets away with a near-certain penalty. Skrtel must have been teaching the youngster the dark arts of shirt pulling but like his mentor Skrtel he gets away scot free.

Scary moment for football after Kouyate stays down after a head-to-head collision with Flanagan. He walks off the pitch on his own, but looks thoroughly concussed. Our old player pony-tailed Andy Carroll comes on. 

Already Sturridge and Origi showing more understanding of each others movements than Benteke and the rest of the team for the whole season. Sturridge nearly puts Origi in on goal, but the pass is just beyond him. 

Benteke gets close with a free kick, but the shot is saved with a diving effort from Randolph.

Kevin Stewart walks off a leg-breaking tackle. He is as tough as nails. Reminds me of our former player Paul Stewart (no relation) 

Full time: It's an all around good game, with both sides going for it. We look so threatening with Origi, Sturridge and Benteke up front. 

Extra Time: Benteke misses two consecutive HUGE chances. On the first he pulls a volley just wide of the mark when a shot on target would have produced a certain goal. On the second, he's set free on a 1v1 and hits it straight at the keeper. Hugely disappointing, and it could mean the game. 

Milner comes on for Chirivella, surely with a look ahead to the penalty shoot out.

Sturridge goes for goal, and narrowly misses the top right corner.

As is usually the case in these extended affairs, the players look absolutely exhausted as the match wears on. Lots of sloppy play, and if a goal is scored on either side it'll likely be the result of a mistake, not a moment of inspiration.

GOAL. West Ham win it at the death. On a set play, no less with them being rewarded the free kick for a foul which wasn’t a foul by the otherwise outstanding Lucas, referee Roger East again being dictated to by the raucous West Ham crowd. Ogbonna raising highest above the LFC defenders to head home. The disappointing thing about the goal was the hunger and desire came from the West Ham player rather than from our players to stop the free kick threat. This game could have gone either way, unfortunately it didn't go ours tonight.

Man of the match – Lucas Leiva -He was outstanding at the back marshalling and cajoling and encouraging his team mates throughout and displaying the qualities you expect from a LFC captain.

Special mentions – Daniel Sturridge – When he came on you could see why we are desperate for him to play – he was head and shoulders our best attacking player and produced one dribble that was just magical. I would now play him against Aston Villa.

Positives – This season the youngsters have been given a chance which each of them have grabbed with both hands and all of them should count themselves unlucky not to be part of our future plans as they are all a credit to the club. Full back Smith, centre back Ilori and Midfielders Brannagan/Stewart being the standout youngsters.

Negatives – Mignolet being played despite bringing back Ward on loan – Ward will not get any games so it was no point bringing him back to the club. Benteke has cost us our place in the next round and at £32 million has now proved to be a costly mistake in the transfer window again. We may have to cut our losses again in the summer as he just doesn’t produce the goals when you most need them – that’s the difference between a top striker and a good striker. 

I am convinced if Sturridge had the chances that Benteke had today we would now be through to a tough away fixture in the 5^th round away to Blackburn but unfortunately we are now out of the FA Cup for another year – mainly due to the continued missed opportunities of Benteke.

Teams:

West Ham: Randolph, O'Brien(Moses 83 mins), Reid (Collins 65), Ogbonna, Cresswell, Kouyate(Carroll 75), Noble, Obiang, Antonio,Valencia, Payet

Subs: Adrian, Oxford, Cullen, Parfitt-Williams

Booked: Antonio 

Goal: Antonio 45, Ogbonna 120 

Liverpool: Mignolet, Flanagan, Stewart, Tiago Ilori, Smith, Teixeira (Origi 59), Lucas, Chirivella (Milner 101), Ibe, Benteke, Coutinho(Sturridge 59)

Subs not used: Jose Enrique, Henderson, Ward, Randall

Booked: Stewart 

Goal: Coutinho 48 

Referee: Roger East

Attendance: 34,433 

Manager’s comments:-

“I thought they could play like this so I’m not surprised. But the only reason we were here tonight was to win.
“We did a lot of things really well. But the first real chance was a goal for West Ham. Our goal was great, a high-quality goal of Phil Coutinho.
“We changed really offensively and still did well and created chances. It was a big fight. We couldn’t use our chances, they got a free-kick without a foul and we conceded a goal. Now we go home.
“We don’t have to talk about morale, we showed morale and everything is OK with these boys. If you go through the squad tonight, it’s a great game.
“Flanno was out for 18 months and played 120 minutes tonight – great. Tiago Ilori was at Aston Villa and not in the squad, not really a second-team player, and played really well tonight.
“Next to him, Lucas Leiva was not in his position and played really well. Brad Smith, four or five weeks ago he wasn’t at the club. The double-six [Pedro Chirivella and Kevin Stewart] are very young and were really good.
“Ibe is not in the best moment of the season but was really fighting in the game, Christian the same, fighting in the game. Phil, second time injured – really fighting, a great goal and good play. Everything was good with Joao Teixeira. That’s really good.
“But the only reason we were here was to go into the next round and so we are disappointed. That’s how it is.”
He continued: “We created chances, but we didn’t score goals – that’s the major mistake you can make in football. But it’s better to create chances and to miss than to not create chances.
“If you want, we can see positives. We are Liverpool FC and in this moment it’s not the sunniest side – a 2-0 lead [lost against Sunderland], manager in hospital, out of the FA Cup, but tomorrow when we get up, the sun will shine.
“If we want at Liverpool, all together, then we can take a lot of positive things out of this game and make the next step. We can rest a lot of players now because we will have the first matchday – I don’t know when it is – when we are not involved.
“We have to use the time, we have to take the time, we have to make steps. That’s what we’ve done until now. We don’t like our results too much, to be honest, but it is the difficult way we have to go and in the end, it can be the right way.
“I’m OK, I would have gone to the next round, it didn’t work, so let’s carry on.”
One obvious positive to take from the evening was the return to action of Daniel Sturridge, who was introduced on the hour to end his spell on the sidelines since December.
Asked whether the No.15 will be in contention for a start at Aston Villa on Sunday, Klopp said: “We have to talk first with Daniel, the doctor and all of the medical staff before I make a decision about this.
“The game was a little bit longer than I thought because I thought we could decide it after 90 minutes, but we didn’t so it was [another] 30 minutes plus. We will see.
“It was great [to have Sturridge back], everybody saw it. Divock Origi is back, Philippe Coutinho is back, so that’s good, but we need consistency in the line-up.”
Two great opportunities fell to Christian Benteke in extra-time but the Belgian dragged one wide and saw the other saved by West Ham goalkeeper Darren Randolph as he ran through one-on-one.
Klopp said: “Ask 80 to 90 per cent of all strikers in the world – high-quality, low-quality, no-quality – they will tell you they’ve had times like this.
“It’s like it is and you have to carry on. You have to go on, there’s no other situation. All the people in the world want the easy goal, but then the easy goal doesn’t help, so you have to play, you have to improve, you have to want to do all the things – that’s how it always is. It’s no different for Christian.
“But tonight, it was a really good game without the maximum finish, but he did a lot, he worked a lot, so it was a big step – that’s good for us and that’s good for him.”

Good to see our manager back our players but time is fast running out for a few of them !!!