Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher summed things up nicely after Jürgen Klopp’s side was knocked out of the FA Cup. It was Manchester United that advanced to Wembley.
In the wake of Liverpool’s unexpected defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Reds legend Jamie Carragher couldn’t hide his dismay. The match, a rollercoaster of emotions for both teams, saw Liverpool nearly securing a spot at Wembley until a late equalizer by Antony brought the score to 2-2, pushing the game into extra-time.
Liverpool momentarily regained the lead with a deflected goal from Harvey Elliott, but their hopes were dashed as Marcus Rashford leveled the score and Amad sealed United’s victory in the dying moments of stoppage time, exploiting Liverpool on a counter-attack. This loss was a significant blow to Jürgen Klopp’s aspirations of leaving Merseyside with an unprecedented quadruple trophy haul.
Now, Liverpool’s ambitions are narrowed down to contending for the Premier League title and progressing in the Europa League. Despite this setback, Carragher’s post-match comments on X/Twitter succinctly voiced the collective frustration and disbelief felt by many fans.
His post read: “Unbelievable game and it’s a great result for Man United but Liverpool only have themselves to blame. Scored three and still the attacking players were all very poor. Can’t complain too much as they’ve been amazing all season.” He concluded his thoughts with a succinct summary that resonated with football enthusiasts everywhere: “Football, bloody hell.”
With their FA Cup journey concluded, Liverpool’s focus shifts entirely to maintaining its Premier League campaign, where they are neck and neck with Arsenal and Manchester City at the top of the table, and to their upcoming Europa League clash against Atalanta scheduled for mid-April. The FA Cup was the lowest priority, even if losing it was far from the plan.
The Reds should have killed the game on several occasions and ultimately paid the price for not doing so. Six words in particular from Carragher sum things up perfectly: ‘Liverpool only have themselves to blame’.
It was clearly very frustrating but Liverpool still has the chance to complete a treble. If Manchester United wins the cup tie and Liverpool wins the league fixture in three weeks, Klopp would probably take that in the end.