With a convalescing manager, mounting injuries and fans in revolt against the club’s hierarchy, Liverpool’s preparations for Tuesday’s FA Cup replay at West Ham United have been less than ideal.
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Slaven Bilic, the West Ham manager, also questioned a number of decisions made by the referee, Roger East, on a night that could have seen the last FA Cup tie ever played at the Upton Park.
A last-gasp header from Italian centre-half Angelo Ogbonna catapulted the Hammers into round five after Michail Antonio and Philippe Coutinho had traded goalscoring blows in normal time.
“We have to talk first with Daniel, the doctor and all of the medical staff before I make a decision about this”, Klopp said, as quoted on Liverpool’s official site.
“OK, it is only for the last 16, but it was a late night kick-off, it was against Liverpool, it’s our last season at Upton Park, it’s over 120 minutes and we scored with a great header in the last second of the game despite having injuries”.
“I was thinking ‘where am I going to stick my penalty?’ and then Angelo saved us all from the heartache of penalties”, Noble was quoted as saying by the BBC.
“I am proud of the boys and they left their hearts on the pitch”.
“The goal came as the cherry on the pie of [Ogbonna’s] game”.
With the encounter heading for a penalty shootout, Dimitri Payet’s delivery was headed in by Ogbonna to send Liverpool crashing out.
The Blackburn Rovers will host the victor of this match in the fifth round of the F.A. Cup in a match set for February 21 at 9 a.m. EST. “They got a free-kick without a foul and we conceded a goal”, said Klopp.
Bilic also said midfielder Dimitri Payet is committed to the club after reports linked the France global with a big-money move to China. “Our league form has not been great so we need to make sure that Tuesday we stay in (the FA Cup)”. But it’s better to create chances and to miss than to not create chances.
Midway through the period, West Ham will rightly feel they should have been handed a golden chance to go back in front.
Antonio would not be denied again in the 45th minute, however, as he side-footed home on the volley after Enner Valencia broke into the area and crossed for his teammate. “We are Liverpool, and at this moment it is not the most sunny side”.
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“I saw the Sunderland game and a lot of things I think people could see were really good but in the end it was not enough”.
