Liverpool suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Sunday, but Ian Wright believes it was a loss all of their own making
Ian Wright has blasted Darwin Nunez for his part in Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
The Reds’ hope of winning a quadruple of trophies was ended at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Liverpool twice led, but were pegged back and were left heartbroken when Amad scored in the 120th minute.
After Scott McTominay opened the scoring, Alexis Mac Allister equalised before Mohamed Salah put the Reds ahead moments later. But with just three minutes of normal time remaining, Antony produced a neat turn before firing into the bottom corner.
The visitors took the lead again in extra-time when Harvey Elliott’s hopeful shot was deflected past Andre Onana. Eight minutes before the end of extra-time though, United were back level.
The goal came from a major mistake from Nunez, who gifted possession to McTominay with a loose pass in midfield. Nunez started the game up-front, but had found himself dropping deeper just before giving the ball away.
McTominay slipped Marcus Rashford in, with the England international firing in the equaliser. And Nunez’s role in that goal drew a furious reaction from Wright, who blasted the attacker.
He told ITV : “You have to look at Darwin Nunez there. What are you doing there? The thing is, he’s got the capability to play it to the left-back. You don’t put it back into that area. You just don’t do that.”
Though arguably all of United’s goals could be put down to errors, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp was proud of his side. He praised them for fighting back from a difficult start and cursed the opportunities they missed to put the game to bed.
“Obviously today was on and above the edge, it was really tough for us with the 130 or whatever minutes. United had the clear best start, it was obvious, they scored the early goal,” he said.
“We had to organise ourselves a little bit better, we struggled with the man-marking, didn’t play enough, all these kinds of things. In the moment when we found for the first time a way to play then we get rhythm and then it looked really good.
“Then we were absolutely deserved 2-1 up. And second half was exceptional, absolutely exceptional what we played here. But we didn’t finish the game off and when you leave the door open away from home at Old Trafford, it’s clear they will get chances.
“It got really hard for us, then it was really hard for us. Then we go 3-2 up, all good. Then they score, 3-3, 4-3. Come on, easily can accept that, congratulations to United, they fought extremely hard as well. That’s how it is, you want to go to the semi-finals.”
