Premier League

Player ratings as Reds advance in FA Cup

Ruben Neves

Liverpool battled their way into the fourth round of the FA Cup as a Harvey Elliott stunner settled the tie against Wolves.

The original tie at Anfield was at the centre of a VAR storm as a late Wolves goal was ruled out, but there was considerably less drama in the replay.

In fact, VAR was even briefly unavailable for the game due to a power outage in the first half.

The match was ultimately a low-quality affair, that was won early by the one piece of genuine class in the whole game.

Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott picked the ball up in his own half and drove forward before thundering a long range effort into the net.

At that time, Liverpool were definitely making all of the running, and they had the ball in the net again shortly afterwards, but Fabio Carvalho was well offside.

From there, Liverpool generally succeeded in keeping Wolves at arm’s length. The hosts appeared a little restricted by their defensive shape, although they were also wasteful on the occasions they did get in good positions.

Boss Julen Lopetegui changed things, committing more players forward, and his side did look a lot more dangerous as a result.

However, Liverpool stood firm and Elliott’s fifth Liverpool goal turned out to be a very worthy match-winning one.

Liverpool will now face Brighton in the FA Cup fourth round.

Ruben Neves

Ruben Neves – not at his best for Wolves / Matthew Ashton – AMA/GettyImages

GK: Jose Sa – 6/10 – Nothing he could do about Elliott’s strike and solid enough generally.

RB: Dexter Lembikisa – 5/10 – Looked a little overwhelmed by it.

CB: Nathan Collins – 7/10 – The pick of the Wolves performers.

CB: Toti Gomes – 6/10 – One of Wolves’ better players on the night.

LB: Jonny – 5/10 – Not his night at all.

RM: Adama Traore – 5/10 – Very typical Adama performance in that he promised so much but ultimately delivered so little.

CM: Joao Moutinho 5/10 – Wasn’t able to get on the ball enough.

CM: Ruben Neves – 6/10 – Good, but maybe not as good as Wolves needed him to be.

CM: Joe Hodge – 5/10 – Promising showing from the youngster,

LM: Rayan Alt Nouri – 6/10 – A dynamic performance but one that lacked product.

CF: Raul Jimenez – 5/10 – Starved of service.

Substitutes

SUB: Matheus Nunes (46′ for Hodge) – N/A

SUB: Nelson Semedo (46′ for Lembikisa) – N/A

SUB: Matheus Cunha (64′ for Moutinho) – N/A

SUB: Daniel Podence (64′ for Jonny) – N/A

SUB: Diego Costa (84′ for Jimenez) – N/A

Manager

Manager: Julen Lopetegui – 4/10 – Set his side up far too defensively early on and…

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