Liverpool 4-1 Barnsley: Reds overcome valiant display against League One side

Liverpool overcame a valiant effort from Barnsley to book their place in the FA Cup fourth round with a 3-1 victory at Anfield.

The League One side went toe-to-toe with the Premier League champions for much of the game but were undone by three brilliant Liverpool strikes courtsey of Dominik Szoboszlai, Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz, with Hugo Ekitike scoring a fourth in added time.

Barnsley went in 2-1 behind at half-time after former Reds academy player Adam Phillips capitalise on a shocking Szoboszlai mistake and were controvertially denied a penalty after the break while still just a goal down when the Hungarian brought down the impressive Reyes Cleary, who was named man of the match.

But the Reds rode the storm and eventually saw out the win to book a fourth-round tie against Brighton.

Szoboszlai stunner and howler in lively first half

Conor Hourihane’s League One almost made a dream start with less than 30 seconds on the clock when Davis Keilor-Dunn out-jumped Joe Gomez and thumped a header against the post with Giorgi Mamardashvili well beaten.

Cleary then managed to get in behind Virgil van Dijk but couldn’t find Keilor-Dunn with the cross in what was a lively start by the underdogs.

But the Premier League champions extinguished those early hopes when Szoboszlai picked up the ball from Alexis Mac Alliser before firing a thunderbolt into the top corner from 25 yards.

The goal didn’t seem to discourage the Tykes from their confident start, with Keillor-Dunn testing Van Dijk again with a nice run and shot which forced a save out of Marmadashvilli.

But before long Liverpool were 2-0 up as the visitors were once again reminded of the quality they were up against as Frimpong drove inside before lashing an effort into the back of the net with his left foot.

But Barnsley reduced the parity to just one goal again when former Liverpool academy player Phillips found the net, but it was more about an absolute horror mistake from goalscorer Szoboszlai.

The Hungarian carried the ball inside the box before bizarrely opting to backheel the ball to his goalkeeper – getting the flick all wrong to present the easiest of opportunities for Phillips to tap in.

Another confident start from the visitors saw Cleary cause plenty of issues on the left but Liverpool’s threat remained, with Rio Ngumoha seeing a teasing ball into the box go begging before Van Dijk forced a stunning reflex save from goalkeeper Murphy Cooper to tip it over the bar.

Cleary burst through on the left once again before being brought down by the ever-involved Szoboszlai inside the box, but referee Farai Hallam opted to not award the penalty despite seemingly pulling the shirt of the Barnsley man and making a slight contact with his leg – with an angered Hourihane receiving a yellow card for his protests on the sidelines.

Van Dijk then couldn’t find the corner with a nice header back across goal from Cody Gakpo’s cross as the lively encounter continued.

Substitute Florian Wirtz should then have wrapped the game up to turn in Szoboszlai’s cross but the German was too nonchalant with his effort which sailed over the bar.

But Wirtz then made no mistake with an even harder finish to finally seal the victory after running onto a Hugo Ekitike flick to lash the ball into the top corner to continue the theme of excellent Liverpool strikes.

Barnsley continued to toil, particularly through the excellent Cleary, but Liverpool broke on the break in the dying minutes as Ekitike slid home the fourth.