SAN FRANCISCO, January 09, (THEWILL) – An upset of tectonic proportions appeared to be on the cards when Liverpool travelled to the Midlands to face Aston Villa in their English FA Cup fixture and 17-year-of-old Louie Barry made an indelible impression that will remain a highpoint of this year’s FA Cup.
With four minutes left before the interval and trailing by a lone Sadio Mane goal, the £880,000 signing from La Liga club Barcelona produced the unthinkable in the form of an Aston Villa equaliser against the Reds.
However, the depth of quality in Liverpool’s first-team eventually carried through as they saw off the spirited efforts of the young Villa side to book a place for themselves in round four.
Three goals in five second-half minutes from Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum and Mohamed Salah restored normal settings and snatched victory from the jaws of eternal embarrassment for Jurgen Klopp’s charges. Had it been otherwise, Anfield’s men could never have been able to live with the shame.
This is because the first-team faces of the Aston Villa side that took Liverpool to the cleaners with a seismic 7-2 pounding in October were not featuring. The reported 14 positive coronavirus cases in the Villa Park team meant that the hosts turned to the youngsters of their Under-23 side led by their coach Mark Delaney to represent them.
The team was composed of seven U-23 players and four from the Villa U-18 boys. For most of them, it was an evening for their first taste of action at the senior level and they were going against world class heavyweights: the defending champions and English Premier League table leaders fielding such star as Salah, Jordan Henderson and Mane.
It made for one of the strangest nights in FA Cup history, which was made all the more special by the superb display and heartening efforts of the young Villains. They put up such a brave fight especially in the first 45 minutes, bringing some feel-good factor to the game in increasingly difficult times. It was an uplifting moment.
However, the game was at a disadvantage to Villa and it is a wonder that it was allowed to go ahead. It played into the FA determined stance that the show must go on but did not come off as fair as a group of teenagers were called into action against the league’s reigning champions just to prove a point.
The hosts deserve credit for stepping up to the plate. They could have attempted to have the tie called off and, by so doing, add to an already congested calendar of postponed matches, but they found a way to turn that negative into a gloriously unforgettable evening for their academy players.
In the end, it felt like it was more about fulfilling the duty of turning up a team for the game than of playing a competitive sporting contest. And, this is because the FA wants nothing to do with stopping to consider the effects of the outbreak on the game. So, domestic competitions and league fixtures are forced to go on as normal regardless while clubs and players deal with the repercussions.
How long this will go on before everything grinds to a crunching halt or before the government sees the need to intervene is uncertain. What happens when there are more outbreaks in other training grounds that impede the ability of another side to field their first team? : More youngsters or more postponements?
As refreshing as it was to discover the young talent of Villa’s Louie Barry, who got glowing compliments from Klopp, this is not how a league side will want to showcase the gems of their Academy. Through no direct fault of theirs, Villa are out of the FA Cup for the season. It is a small price in terms of the bigger picture but how many others will want to pay it. Who else will want to risk it if it is a league game?
These are the issues the FA must put into consideration as it continues to observe and deal with the immediate and remote facts around its position that “the show must go on”.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
