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43 min: Traore tugs at Tsimikas’s shoulder, then clips his ankles. He’s the first player to go into the book. Lopetegui, who feels Liverpool have been constantly fouling his players since the get-go, laughs sarcastically in the fourth official’s face.
42 min: Ait-Nouri dribbles elegantly infield from the left, but a heavy touch betrays him on the edge of the box. Shame, because it was a fine run past a couple of despairing challenges.
40 min: A long Neves pass down the right releases Traore, who reaches the box ahead of Tsimikas and Gomez. But there’s nobody in the middle, so he has to have a whack from a tight angle. He flays a wild effort wide right and high.
38 min: Liverpool’s tails are up. Tsimikas advances down the left and crosses long for Elliott, who is never winning a header at the far stick. A bit more on the cross, though, and the ball would have evaded Jonny, dropping instead at Elliott’s feet. Then Thiago is found by the right-hand edge of the Wolves D. He sees off Collins with graceful ease, then strokes a shot with the outside of his boot wide left. It wouldn’t have counted, because up pops that offside flag again.
35 min: Keita slips Carvalho into space down the inside-right channel. Carvalho strides into the box and whistles a confident low shot past Sa and into the bottom left. But up pops the flag, correctly so, as Carvalho was miles offside.
33 min: Thankfully for Sa, who hasn’t covered himself in glory so far this evening, nothing comes of the corner. “Having just seen a replay of the goal, it wasn’t quite in the top corner, but the goalkeeper was off his line, so it lobbed him down the middle,” reports Andy (not that one) Flintoff. “It was a good strike, but with slightly better positioning, I think the goalkeeper would have saved it quite comfortably.”
32 min: Elliott twists his way down the right before slipping Gakpo into the box. Gakpo blazes over the bar. From the restart, Wolves play out from the back, only for Sa to clumsily miscontrol a backpass and shank it out for a corner.
30 min: Ait-Nouri stops an in-flight Milner progressing down the right. Sa – who wasn’t best positioned for the goal, as good as Elliott’s strike was – flaps. A game of head tennis comes to an end when Konate barges Collins over.
29 min: All that pre-match BBC bedlam explained.
28 min: Now Traore is brought down on the right by Tsimikas. Liverpool are conceding quite a few fouls here, and the home fans aren’t happy with the repetitive nature of it. Moutinho’s free kick is swung into the box and half cleared. Neves hits a pearler goalwards, but it’s blocked. The home fans roar their approval, nonetheless.
26 min: Milner sticks a leg across Moutinho, who was striding down the middle of the park. A free kick for Wolves, 30 yards out. Lopetegui once again does his nut. But no booking. Nothing comes of the set piece.
24 min: Gakpo tries to knock the ball past Ait-Nouri in the Wolves box but runs slap bang into his man instead. He wants a penalty, but he was looking for it, and is told in no uncertain terms to get up.
23 min: The free kick comes to nothing. Neves escaped a booking, which is kind of generous given the inherent cynicism in the challenge, but Wolves have had no luck with the officials in this tie, so they’re due a break.
22 min: Toti attempts to play out from the back. He’s hounded by Keita and Elliott and panics, rolling a hospital pass across the front of his own box towards Neves, who has no option but to bring down Carvalho, who was preparing to make it into the area.
20 min: Wolves have responded well to falling behind, in so much as they’ve spent most of the subsequent time in Liverpool’s half. They’re not doing a great deal with their territorial advantage, though.
18 min: Lopetegui was fuming after the Liverpool goal. He claimed Ait-Nouri’s shot was handled by Gomez. Replays show it hit Gomez’s elbow, but only on the ricochet, and at close range. It was never a spot kick … and it was checked by VAR, which they got back up and running, just in time.
16 min: Carvalho slips Tsimikas into the Wolves box down the left. Tsimikas blasts wildly over the bar from a tight angle. He had options inside.
15 min: … so Liverpool haven’t conceded the first goal for once. Molineux is noisy now, albeit with the travelling fans making most of the (non XXX-rated) noise.
GOAL! Wolves 0-1 Liverpool (Elliott 13)What a goal this is! Ait-Nouri cuts into the Liverpool box from the left but his shot is blocked. Liverpool counter. Elliott picks up the ball to the right of the centre circle, keeps on going down the channel, and launches a stunner into the top right from 25 yards! Wow.
Harvey Elliott of Liverpool scores the team’s first goal. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images11 min: Tsimikas, who scored the winning penalty in last year’s final, advances down the left but ultimately loses control. It’s been a quiet start to the evening, the (possibly saucy and XXX-rated) screeching on the BBC apart.
9 min: Liverpool’s press panics Wolves into shipping a half-chance for Gakpo from distance. His pea-roller dribbles harmlessly towards Sa, who needs no second opportunity this time.
8 min: Liverpool finally get forward, Elliott looping high into the Wolves box from the right wing. Sa makes a meal of gathering, but does so at the second attempt under pressure from Carvalho.
7 min: The BBC’s preamble was soundtracked by an ear-splitting screeching noise, as well. It’s all been very strange.
6 min: Wolves win the first corner of the evening out on the right. Moutinho takes. His team-mates make nothing of it, and Kelleher collects. “Maybe Klopp thinks Liverpool’s best chance is to advance under cover of darkness,” quips Richard Hirst, because somebody had to.
5 min: The power cut that affected the floodlights has by all accounts wiped out the screens for the VAR. What a technological debacle this tie has been so far, when you also factor in the VAR chaos that arguably cost Wolves the win at Anfield.
3 min: Traore gets a chance to cross with the lights on this time. His ball is met by Jimenez, who heads harmlessly wide right. A fast start by the hosts.
2 min: The lights, back on, are bright enough for us to continue. Wolves are livid that Liverpool are given a drop ball to restart, as Traore was on the attack and preparing to whip one into the mixer. Wolves are livid. So much for Molineux floodlit friendlies!
Wolves get this third-round replay underway. Traore romps down the right wing and is about to cross … when the floodlights momentarily fail! Molineux descends into darkness for a couple of seconds before they come back on. Very eerie.
The teams are out! Wolves wear their famous old gold, while Liverpool sport their equally storied red. A rare old atmosphere at a very cold Molineux. Hi-ho Wolverhampton. “Good afternoon Scott, from sunny California.” Hello Mary Waltz, from frozen Britain. “I root for the relegation-threatened Blue side of the Mersey but I feel sorry for Klopp. I know I am not supposed to but the collapse of Liverpool has been so sudden and I miss the joyous Klopp of the last year or two. Sullen Klopp is sad to watch.” He seemed happy enough in that pre-match interview on the Beeb, to be fair. How long that will last, we shall see. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Julen Lopetegui is asked by the BBC whether he’s still fuming about the performance of the referee and the VAR at Anfield … “Today we have a big game at home against one of the best teams in the world. We have to put our focus only on this. We have tried to choose our best line-up, knowing we have to be 100 percent, all the players.”
… while Jurgen Klopp is asked whether the quick turnaround from the Brighton fiasco is a blessing for Liverpool. “We will see! After a game like that, there is no chance for any kind of good mood. You need time to process and let it settle. There’s always the next game, which is good, and it gives you a new opportunity, and that’s what we are here for. We want to go to the next round. I know how it looks at the moment. In the last game, Wolves scored a goal which maybe should have been allowed, or not, but now we are here and want to give it a proper try. Some changes we had to make, some we wanted to make. We want the fresh legs to have a better chance to win it.”
Wolves make two changes from the XI named at Anfield. Jose Sa and Joao Moutinho come in for Matija Sarkic and Goncalo Guedes. Diego Costa returns from the workshop and takes up his place on the bench.
By contrast, Liverpool rip it up and start again. Only three players who started the original tie keep their place: Ibrahima Konate, Thiago and Cody Gakpo. In come Caoimhin Kelleher, James Milner, Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas, Stefan Bajcetic, Naby Keita, Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho. Darwin Nunez remains injured. (For the record, it’s also eight changes from the rabble sent out for last Saturday’s debacle at Brighton, with Konate, Thiago and Gakpo once again the only three to keep their place, so whichever way you slice it, Jurgen Klopp has given everything a good old shoogle.)
The teamsWolverhampton Wanderers: Sa, Lembikisa, Collins, Toti, Jonny, Hodge, Neves, Moutinho, Traore, Jimenez, Ait-Nouri.
Subs: Sarkic, Podence, Hwang, Cunha, Semedo, Kilman, Nunes, Costa, Bueno.
Liverpool: Kelleher, Milner, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas, Bajcetic, Thiago, Keita, Elliott, Carvalho, Gakpo.
Subs: Alisson, Fabinho, Salah, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Robertson, Matip, Phillips, Doak.
The teams.
✌️ Two changes from the team that played at Anfield.
🔁 Sa and Moutinho introduced.
How we line-up to face @LFC.
🐺📋 @AstroPay_OK
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 17, 2023 PreambleWolves can barely lay a glove on Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool in the Premier League – they’ve lost the last eight meetings in a row – but in the FA Cup it’s a vastly different story. Back in 2017 they went to Anfield and did this …
… then two years later at Molineux this happened …
… and finally the other week they were a dubious offside decision away from making it three in a row …
… so can Julen Lopetegui’s rejuvenated side complete the triptych against increasingly dysfunctional opponents tonight? We’ll soon find out, even if there must be extra time and penalties. Kick off is at 7.45pm GMT. It’s on!