Liverpool U18s will now face Arsenal after beating Fleetwood Town in the Youth Cup.
Liverpool U18s won the FA Youth Cup after beating Fleetwood Town in the third round at Highbury Stadium. The young Reds needed a late winner to avoid a repeat with the League One club’s academy and that came through an in-form man.
Jayden Dunns scored in the fourth minute of extra time to send Mark Bridge-Wilkinson’s side through to the next round. The striker put Liverpool ahead at half-time before Hermann Daha equalized for Fleetwood.
And after hitting the equalizer twice, Dunnes went big to set up a fourth-round tie against Arsenal. The 17-year-old currently has 16 goals in 12 competitive appearances in the Premier League Under-18s, Premier League Under-18s Cup and FA Youth Cup.
Danns also scored a brace in last weekend’s 4-3 friendly defeat to Ajax and another in a 4-0 win over Reading in September, taking his tally to 20 goals this season.
Speaking about the win over Fleetwood, young Reds manager Bridge-Wilson told Liverpolfc.com: “It was a difficult game. It was a tough match, as we expected. Fleetwood gave us a very difficult test. They were very competitive. I think they played the ball well and gave us a lot of problems.
“I don’t think we’ve reached the level we expected, which is disappointing. But of course we’re excited to take it to the next level. I’m disappointed. I know we can play better, I know our game can improve. I know we can individually make better decisions and organize technical moments to control the game.”
Today wasn’t meant to be and like I said, even though I didn’t play well, I’m very happy that I found a way through it.” Two goals are good goals, two are goals for the center forward. Maybe he got one or two more, he would have reached the right area, he would have reached another day.
“Perhaps if we had taken our chances a little earlier, the game would have changed. Overall, I think we should be happy to have moved on to the next step, but we know there is still a lot of work to do.
