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Football

27th Jan 2018

Liverpool have been knocked out of the FA Cup by West Brom

Robert Redmond

Liverpool have been knocked out of the FA Cup by West Brom.

Liverpool crashed out of the competition in a dramatic game at Anfield on Saturday night. At the end of a frantic first-half, West Brom were leading 3-1, and despite Mohamed Salah’s goal 12 minutes from the end of full-time, the visitors hung to claim an unlikely, but deserved, 3-2 victory against Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Roberto Firmino opened the scoring after just six minutes, when he chipped the ball over Ben Foster. That goal looked liked it was going to be the first of many, but a minute later, West Brom were level. Jay Rodriguez buried a first-time shot from the edge of the penalty area past Simon Mignolet, and got his second four minutes later to leave Anfield stunned.

VAR cancelled out a third goal for West Brom, Firmino missed a penalty and Joel Matip scored an own-goal just before half-time. Liverpool attempted to rally late in the game, but couldn’t find an equaliser.

There will be two talking points from the game – Liverpool’s defence, and the VAR.

The video assistant referee system is being used in this season’s FA Cup, and will be in use at the World Cup this summer. It overturned two incorrect decisions in the first-half, but the process of consulting with the video referee often took a little bit of time, and slightly interrupted the flow of the game.

Others made the connection between VAR and Liverpool’s defence to make a seemingly obvious joke, as the system prevented Liverpool from conceding even more goals in the game.