Key events
Half-time advertising break. Nice cold, ice cold moves.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 2-0 Accrington Stanley
The scoreline is justified by the amount of possession Liverpool have enjoyed. But Stanley have given a good account of themselves.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Accrington Stanley (Alexander-Arnold 45)
Redemption for Trent! He picks up possession to the right of the Stanley D and pearls a rising shot into the top-left corner. Crellin, at full stretch, has no chance whatsoever. Alexander-Arnold opens his arms to receive the acclaim and smiles warmly. Thing about milk is, the cream always rises to the top.
Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
44 min: Anyway, milk. âJudging by your preamble the suggestion is âmilkmenâ could be extinct,â begins Alec Campbell. âThey might well be in some areas. However milk delivery in glass bottles is available in lots of places. We have glass bottled milk delivered three times a week. As well as being pioneers of electric transport and recycling they now even have websites. Certainly beats dragging it from the supermarket, plus it might help support more sustainable local businesses. Hereâs an example. There will be more.â
42 min: Stanley clear the corner, and now itâs their turn to counter from a set piece! Hunter starts on a dribble into Liverpool territory, with the hosts light at the back. Morton does extremely well to recover and extend a leg to poke the ball away from Hunter. For a split second there, Liverpool were exposed.
41 min: Jota dribbles down the left and feeds Nunez, who takes a snapshot thatâs deflected over for a corner. Tsimikas to take from the left.
40 min: Morton has a dig from distance. The ball flies into the Anfield Road end. âItâs worth pointing out that Shaun Whalley has some good karma due his way this afternoon, following his last trip to Anfield,â writes Adam Berry. âMany remember the Mighty Shrews coming from 2-0 down to clinch a draw with Kloppâs title-bound side in 2020, but few remember the replay where poor Shaun was robbed by a VAR call that went back three phases of play to desperately find a reason to disallow the goal (yes, Iâm still bitter). Shrewsbury subsequently conceded an own goal to lose 1-0, and be denied a fifth-round tie at Chelsea. Hereâs hoping his luck changes today!â
39 min: Awe diddles Nunez with a graceful Cruyff Turn. Nominative determinism in full effect.
37 min: Jota scampers down the middle and dinks the ball forward for Morton, who mistimes his run slightly. Instead of shooting from the edge of the box, he can only hook right for Elliott. Now the shot comes. But itâs an easy snaffle for Crellin.
35 min: Stanley havenât been rocked by the goal, and continue to hold their shape and nerve. On the whole, theyâre defending â and playing â well. âAfter all the unmerited flak he got against Man Utd, nice to see Trent provide the killer pass for Liverpoolâs superb counter-attacking goal,â writes Colum Fordham. âNgumoha has impressed thus far. Fast, pretty technical young winger. Obviously drinks milk as prescribed by Ian Rush.â
33 min: Ngumoha embarks on another dribble down the left. Thereâs nothing on for him this time, but you can sense the anticipation in the crowd when the ball is fed across to him. He looks a talent all right.
31 min: A shame for Stanley, who have shown some ambition in attack. Perhaps too much ambition there. Liverpool are so lethal on the counter.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Accrington Stanley (Jota 29)
Szoboszlai hooks upfield for Alexander-Arnold, who swishes a defence-splitting pass down the right for Nunez. Nunez enters the box and rolls across for Jota, who canât miss from six yards. Sixteen seconds after Stanleyâs dangerous free kick.
29 min: Walton steals the ball off a dozing Szoboszlai and tears off down the right. Waltonâs going nowhere, though, but an over-eager Mgumoha arrives to bundle him over. A free kick and a chance for Stanley to load the box. Ben Woods swings it in, but canât beat the first man. Then Liverpool counter, and â¦
27 min: ⦠Endo shoulders harmlessly wide left.
26 min: Tsimikas barges his way down the middle and chips into the box. Morton heads across the face of goal from the right. Jota canât poke the loose ball home but does enough to win a corner. From which â¦
24 min: Walton chases a long ball down the right. He gets there first, and has options in the middle, but he slips as he attempts to cross and the ball flies into the Kop. Or was it a shot? All academic. Either way, itâs no good.
23 min: Anfield is fairly quiet now. Stanleyâs first task complete.
21 min: Nunez tries to advance down the left touchline. Love clumsily stands on his foot. A scream. Just a free kick, no booking. The Stanley right-back can count himself a bit fortunate there. Nunez is back on his feet soon enough.
19 min: Whalley finds some space down the left again, and the Stanley captain wins a corner off Tsimikas. A first for Stanley. Whalley loops it in. Kelleher flaps under it, an unconvincing punch, but heâs been impeded by Josh Woods. The whistle goes. Stanley will be encouraged by these early sorties into Liverpool territory.
17 min: Whalley fouls Szoboszlai out on the left. Tsimikas swings the free kick into the mixer and the ballâs knocked out for another corner. This oneâs no good either. Itâs all Liverpool, but Crellin has only had one save to make so far.
16 min: Ngumoha isnât the sort to hide, thatâs for sure. First up, he takes a whack at goal, only to wildly slice his shot out to the right touchline. But heâs right back in the thick of things immediately, running baroquely down the left to win a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but the young man has already won a few fans in the crowd. More warm applause.
14 min: Some space for Whalley down the left. His cross-cum-shot is deflected high, looping to Josh Woods to the right of the six-yard box. Woods canât force an effort on goal and Quansah blooters clear. Stanley looking dangerous for the first time.
12 min: Ngumoha spins elegantly down the left and feeds Tsimikas, who rolls a pass across the face of the Stanley box. Szoboszlai dummies for Alexander-Arnold, who drives low and hard towards the bottom left. Crellin in the Stanley goal saves with his feet, but the ball lands with Nunez, who blazes over. Now thatâs a poor miss.
11 min: Liverpool stroke it around patiently. No rush.
9 min: Stanley are employing a brave high press. Liverpool require all their smarts to play out from the back. This time they need a cute, if slightly dangerous, Tsimikas crossfield lob to do so.
7 min: Tsimikas curls long from the left. Elliott lunges in from the right and extends a leg to hook the ball back into the middle, where Nunez heads over the bar from close range. Thatâs not as bad as it sounds: he was leaning back and stretching every neck muscle to reach a ball that was just too high.
5 min: Another intriguing dribble from Ngumoha, who cuts in from the left but doesnât notice a couple of red shirts in space on the other flank. The young man still earns a warm round of applause.
3 min: Elliot probes down the right; Ngumoha has his first dribble in a Liverpool shirt down the left. Nothing doing on either side. Stanley attempt to counter, blootering long for Walton, but Endo wins the duel again.
2 min: Tsimikas looks long for Szoboszlai down the left. For a second it looks like Szoboszlai will get in, but Rawson comes across to put a stop to his gallop. Fine covering.
1 min: A long ball down the Stanley right. Walton competes with Endo but the makeshift Liverpool centre-back â who has plenty of experience in the position from his Bundesliga days, to be fair â ushers the ball out for a goal kick.
Accrington Stanley get the ball rolling. Theyâre kicking towards the Kop in this first half. âWho wouldnât be delighted with a defensive line filled with Love and Awe?â coos Dean Kinsella.
The teams are out! Anfield crisp, clear and cold. And loud. A beautiful day on Merseyside but not one youâd want to experience without a big coat. Liverpool in red. Accrington Stanley, who also usually play in red, are today in blue. Everyone looking real fine. Weâll be off in a couple of minutes.
Stanley captain Shaun Whalley is asked by ITVâs Gabriel Clarke about the possibility of scoring a goal at the Kop end. A broad smile immediately plays across his face. âYeah Iâd love that,â Whalley replies. Then, with a twinkle in the eye, he adds: âI probably wouldnât celebrate to be honest. Iâve got too many mates in there!â A laugh as he walks off, dreaming of all possibilities. The magic of the cup, right there.
Accrington Stanley manager John Doolan speaks to ITV. âJust excitement ⦠you can see the drive in them ⦠itâs a fantastic day ⦠we just want to get going ⦠itâs special, isnât it ⦠the lads who got us three points last week get the shirt ⦠you canât go on sentiment ⦠[former Liverpool academy player Liam Coyle] is a fantastic player and Iâm sure heâll get on the pitch at some point ⦠youâve got to do a professional job ⦠Liverpool are a fantastic team ⦠weâve got to try to impose our game on them ⦠look after the ball a bit better ⦠match them and see where that takes us ⦠we have a game-plan ⦠weâll do our best.â
Arne Slot speaks to ITV. âAlmost any other country the cup isnât that special ⦠everyone knows the cup means a bit more than it does ⦠itâs a special game for us ⦠many players who start havenât played much for us ⦠I understand thereâs a bit more excitement in the away dressing room than the home dressing room ⦠but Iâm hoping and expecting that our players want to prove a point as well ⦠most of them havenât played that much recently ⦠there arenât many options ⦠[Dominik] Szoboszlai has been out ill ⦠so thatâs why we start him ⦠the reason for Trent [Alexander-Arnold] is that Conor [Bradley] comes back with a hamstring injury and two days ago we played a game ⦠so I didnât feel it was the right thing to do to play Conor again ⦠itâs always special when young players make a debut ⦠so thereâs a smile on my face ⦠Rio Ngumoha is not afraid to do what heâs good at ⦠one on ones.â
Heâs also asked about the return of David Moyes over the other side of Stanley Park. âItâs always a pity when a manager has to leave ⦠I was a bit surprised because [Sean Dyche] had a few good results ⦠a few draws nobody expected ⦠but David Moyes is always special because of what he did for Everton ⦠he was also successful at West Ham ⦠so itâs good to have him back ⦠but itâs always a pity that someone who in my opinion did really well is out of a job now.â
Liverpool hand a debut to 16-year-old attacker Rio Ngumoha. At 16 years and 135 days, heâll become Liverpoolâs youngest-ever starter. Trent Alexander-Arnold is given an opportunity to play himself back into form â he was decent coming on as a sub in the League Cup semi at Spurs, to be fair â but fellow contract negotiators Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are both rested. Eyebrows may be risen at Ngumoha getting in ahead of Federico Chiesa, who is on the bench, though the young man was one of the Guardianâs Next Generation talents of 2024.
Accrington Stanley name an unchanged side following their 2-0 win at Colchester United. Captain Shaun Whalley scored both goals in that match, plus another in Stanleyâs previous game, a 3-2 home win over Grimsby Town. Striker Josh Woods is a Liverpool supporter whose boyhood idols were Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.
The teams
Liverpool: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Endo, Tsimikas, Morton, Szoboszlai, Elliott, Jota, Ngumoha, Nunez.
Subs: Jaros, Diaz, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Robertson, McConnell, Danns, Bradley, Nyoni.
Accrington Stanley: Crellin, Love, Rawson, Awe, Ben Woods, Khumbeni, Martin, Josh Woods, Hunter, Whalley, Walton.
Subs: Kelly, Coyle, Mooney, Henderson, Knowles, Batty, Aljofree, Conneely, OâBrien.
Referee: Lewis Smith (Lancashire).
This feels a bit too on the nose, putting a hat on a hat, but today is National Milk Day in the USA. A national holiday second only to Thanksgiving, itâs observed to mark the day in 1878 when milk was first delivered in glass bottles sealed with waxed paper, and to celebrate the crucial role the United States Department of Agriculture plays in ensuring US milk is the best in class. Canât help thinking Accrington Stanley and the FA marketing bods have missed an official-partner trick here. Make America Lactate Again?
Preamble
During the 1970s, nearly all sales of milk in the UK were handled by independent neighbourhood milkmen. The friendly face of dairies across the land, they would do the rounds each morning in their cart, leaving pint bottles full of delicious creamy goodness on every doorstep. It was an environmentally sound system too: the bottles were reusable and the milk cart was electric. Great! But now those days are long gone. What did for poor old Milky? What happened to him? Mr Sainsbury, Mr Morrison, Mr Tesco, Mr Asda, Mr Tesco Express and Mr Sainsburyâs Savacentre, the big bullies, is what happened, with supermarkets and other stores now accounting for over 95% of milk sales. And so, upon watching this fondly remembered and oft-quoted old advert, several generations of calcium-and-micro-economics fans can be forgiven for innocently asking â¦
⦠âUnigate Dairies? Who are they?â Exactly. Meanwhile in other nutrient-rich-beverage-related news, the football club once slandered by the Milk Marketing Board travel to Anfield for a proper old-school David v Goliath third-round FA Cup tie. Kick-off is at 12.15pm GMT. Itâs on! Watch out!