Defeated rival Manchester City
Klopp’s historic quadruple hunt continues
4/16/2022, 6:53 p.m
Jürgen Klopp is in the final of the FA Cup for the first time. Because his Liverpool FC defeated great rivals Manchester City in the semi-finals. The hunt for the possible quadruple triumph continues – and also the deadline hunt.
A bang by Liverpool FC in the FA Cup: Team manager Jürgen Klopp’s team has won the big showdown with rival Manchester City and is reaching for the eighth triumph in the oldest football competition in the world. In the semifinals, the Reds prevailed 3-2 (3-0) at London’s Wembley Stadium against the star ensemble of the Citizens, coached by Pep Guardiola.
Ex-Leipziger Ibrahima Konaté (9th) headed the lead for Liverpool. He had already scored 1-0 for LFC twice against Benfica in the Champions League. Sadio Mané (18th) made it 2-0 after a major mistake by city keeper Zack Steffen (formerly Fortuna Düsseldorf) and made it 3-0 just before the break (45th). Jack Grealish (47th) and Bernardo Silva (90th + 1) scored the connecting goals for the Premier League leaders.
Most recently as winner in 2006
On May 14, in the FA Cup final, Liverpool will meet the winner of the second semi-final duel between Chelsea with coach Thomas Tuchel and outsiders Crystal Palace, who will also meet at Wembley on Sunday (5:30 p.m. / DAZN). The Reds last brought the FA Cup to Anfield Road in 2006, for the 15th time they are in the cup final in football’s mother country.
In the Premier League, both top clubs had recently separated 2-2, in the championship ManCity is one point ahead of the Reds from Anfield Road. For the first time since taking office in 2015, Klopp had reached the FA Cup semifinals with his charges.
While Klopp rested seven players during the week to progress in the Champions League against Benfica Lisbon (3: 3) and was now able to draw on the full, Guardiola was worried. “We’re in big trouble,” he complained before the game: “We played three days ago, now we’ve got a lot of injuries, I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks.”
Both top star Kevin De Bruyne and right-back Kyle Walker had to be substituted on Wednesday evening, Phil Foden left the extremely heated and even escalated duel with Atlético Madrid (0-0) battered. Guardiola made a total of seven changes, initially putting De Bruyne and international İlkay Gündoğan on the bench. The Liverpool coach once again trusted the attacking trio of Mané, Mo Salah and Luis Diaz.
Klopp has long since resigned himself to chasing deadlines on the historic quadruple hunt. “It’s our problem that we’re in two semi-finals, but we’re happy to deal with that. It’s just the way it is,” said the former BVB and Mainz coach: “It’s tough, but it’s the best schedule you have because that means you still have a chance in all competitions.”