[themaclad]

Preston North End 0 Liverpool 2 Minamino, Origi

PNE line-up: Rudd; van den Berg, Lindsay, Hughes; Rafferty, McCann (Johnson, 78), Potts, Ledson (Whiteman, 79), Cunningham (Earl, 69); Maguire (Sinclair, 79), Barkhuizen (Riis, 63). Subs not used: Iversen, Bauer, Johnson, Storey, Huntington.

Liverpool line-up: Adrian; Williams, Matip (Phillips, 45), Gomez, Tsimikas; Morton, Jones (Beck, 90+1), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Dixon-Bonner, 90+1); Blair (Bradley, 55), Origi, Minamino. Subs not used: Pitaluga, Konate, Firmino, Jota, Hughes.

Referee: Mr D Coote.

Attendance: 22,131 (5,611 away fans).



Well it ended like the last competitive game between the two sides with a 2-0 win for the visitors, it was a case of what if we had taken anyone of the shed load of chances in the first half and the other what if we had played a stronger side than we put out having made nine changes from Saturday's non performance at Doomfield given Liverpool's weaker than normal side
To be fair to the lads that played they gave 100%, the two goals they conceded the first may just have been offside and the second Origi had barely been noticed during the game and back heels one in.
For us McCann was excellent strangely the usually static Lindsay had a decent game, Williams had a great game for Liverpoolwhen pushed forward in the second half caused us tons of problems
We wer slow into the game as per usual but Pool lacked a cutting edge, final ball was unusual for them poor, we started to get into them and chances stared to arrive we missed them all, two efforts both Barkhuizen and Potts could have possibly taken the ball further Barky's ended up in the away end, the ball was not seen again, Potts should probably have scored but Adrian managed to get his hands to it and push it for a corner, not the most convincing keeping I've ever seen, in between these efforts Ledson had fired one over the bar and that ball went walkies as well.
Then came the three in 10 seconds Barky dispossess Gomez, McCann inside right position ball across to Maguire should bury it doesn't Adrian makes a great save, ball rebounds to Ledson, ball hits Williams in the face and it drops to Potts who puts the ball into orbit around Mars ad with that we were never really close again
Second half they were in control early scare when Minamino could n't control the ball and an Oxlade Chamberlain shot whistled past the left hand post
On the hour they took the lead the impressive Williams looking slightly offside got to the by line pulled the ball back and Minamino scored, no way back from that, kept plugging way but difficult without the ball
The second about 10 minutes from time great finish by Origi after Tsimakis cross cum shot rebound back into play to Williams whose effort was deflected upwards and Origi did the rest
As I put at the start a case of What if, never mind Luton on Saturday and we need a performnce in that

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: "We didn't play well, that's how it is. We started quite OK, but then we lost the structure completely and that was the problem. We were too lively, too desperate to get the ball.

"As a team we can play better, but individually I saw a few really nice performances. It's all about getting through to the next round, that's what we did. That it [would be] difficult with 11 changes, that was clear."

Preston manager Frankie McAvoy: "I thought our game plan was excellent, we caused Liverpool problems on the counter. We had the best chances in the first half and I don't think Liverpool managed to penetrate us at all in the first half.

"We made nine changes but there's not a lot between the players in our squad, it's fine margins. Sometimes you get it wrong but tonight I felt the guys who were picked did us proud."