Liverpool reached the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-1 win over Shrewsbury.
The visitors took a surprise lead shortly before the half-hour mark after Nathanael Ogbeta’s cross was slid home by an unmarked Daniel Udoh.
But Jurgen Klopp’s side hit back inside barely seven minutes through Kaide Gordon levelling up the tie with a tidy finish from a Conor Bradley delivery.
Fabinho handed the Reds the lead shortly before half time when a handball in the penalty area allowed the Brazilian to dispatch comfortably from 12 yards.
Roberto Firmino assured victory just 10 minutes from the end with a backheel after Ibrahima Konate’s tame shot had found him from Bradley’s byline cross.
With the final kick of the match, Fabinho doubled his tally by drilling home a shot into the roof of Marko Marosi’s net from a Kostas Tsimikas free kick.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Depleted Reds coast into Round 4
As pre-match preparations go, Liverpool have had far better weeks.
Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc on football at large and Jurgen Klopp’s side were not immune to pandemic’s pitfalls ahead of Shrewsbury’s visit.
The Reds’ starting line-up blended its relative inexperience with smatterings of seniority as Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Andy Robertson all returned.
Even with five established players on the substitutes’ bench, this was hardly what could be categorised as anything close to a full-strength selection.
A previous meeting between the sides in early 2020 gained notoriety for Klopp’s young guns seeing off their League One counterparts in a replay.
That option may have been removed but they still had to survive a scare when the visitors took an unexpected lead by capitalising on poor defending.
Yet Liverpool’s fightback and subsequent dominance ensured that their name would be in the hat for the FA Cup’s fourth round draw on Sunday afternoon.
Under the current circumstances, it was the only thing that truly mattered.
The kids are more than alright
The magic of the FA Cup is often associated with lower-league clubs dreaming of downing their more esteemed peers, but it is just as special for Liverpool.
Over recent years, Klopp has utilised the competition to successfully blood some of his club’s latest burgeoning prospects into the first-team reckoning.
Judging by the respective performances of Conor Bradley, Kaide Gordon and Elijah Dixon-Bonner, that production line is promising to extend ever further.
All three players appeared at ease in front of a capacity home crowd, with Bradley’s runs down the right-hand side proving a highly effective outlet.
It helped set up goals for his fellow academy graduate Gordon, who became Liverpool’s second-youngest scorer of all-time, as well as Roberto Firmino.
His contribution to the latter was made all the more impressive by the ball veering out of play before he hooked a cross into Ibrahima Konate’s path.
Gordon’s equalising strike in front of The Kop carried the ruthless eye which belied his teenage years. Proof, were it needed, that the kids are alright.
Could Klopp produce a clean sweep?
Famously, Klopp’s mission statement upon his 2015 arrival in the Anfield hot seat was to set about converting its longstanding doubters into believers.
Ending a 30-year wait for the Premier League title and building on Liverpool’s European Cup collection has already gone some way to achieving that aim.
But the German could bolster his already impressive standing by taking the club deep into all three cup competitions before the current campaign ends.
Next Thursday’s reversed Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal might see his side successfully planting one foot in a Wembley showpiece.
Repeating the feat in the ‘world’s most famous cup competition’ would not appear fanciful, especially with the abolition of replays now an added factor.
A third Champions League final appearance in four years, too, is hardly beyond the realms of possibility despite facing Italian champions Inter Milan.
If Klopp has taught Kopites anything, it’s that nothing is truly impossible. More fool anyone considering betting against a clean sweep in the cups.