Masterstroke from Rafa! After resting Torres for our last two Premiership matches - Portsmouth and Birmingham - he was nice and fresh for this (obviously far more important) match, and laid down a claim for his place with a fine hat-trick (all goals here). It'll be harder for Benitez to leave him out now (but not impossible).
Actually, in all seriousness, I don't mind too much about rotation of strikers. We have four, all of whom should be good enough, though Torres is clearly number one - it's a question of who plays with him and Crouch hasn't done his chances any harm.
On the performance as a whole, Reading pegged us back twice, making things a bit uncomfortable, but we were never behind - and, aside from being denied a possible penalty, several of their players were offside for their first goal.
We were never going to field a whole youth/reserve side away to another Premiership team, but we were able to give some fringe players some match experience. Hopefully we'll get an easier tie in the next round and be able to continue this policy. In three season, and six cup runs (twice reaching finals), I think it's still true that Benitez has yet to face opposition from below the first two tiers of English football.
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