Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Liverpool 5-0 Luton (FA Cup replay)

Back in 2006 our run to lifting the FA Cup began with a thrilling 5-3 win over Luton. Having already been frustrated by a 1-1 draw last week, however, it seemed Benitez was taking no chances, and fielded arguably our strongest team, aside from Itandje in goal, with even Gerrard and Torres starting.

A determined Luton rearguard, marshalled by Don Hutchinson of all people, impressively held out for almost all of a very one-sided first half, but the commentators were only ever talking of how long it would be. Fortunately for us, a lapse of cocentration in first half injury time allowed Babel (who's already hit the post) to fire in the first and that seemed to break the Luton resistance as Liverpool were 4-0 up by 64 minutes.

Gerrard's first and Hyypia's both came from headers, underlining Liverpool's dominance in the air, and Gerrard struck two long-range shots to complete a hat-trick shortly before making way for Lucs Leiva. Luton can hold their heads up high for even taking us to a replay, much less holding out as long as they did, but they'll be more grateful for the extra money; while I think we can be pleased enough with a professional 5-0 win. Hopefully we won't need our full team in the next round, which will probably be against Swansea (subject to replay tomorrow).

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