LIVERPOOL FC U21’s suffered injury time anguish as Michele Fornasier’s fortuitous winner condemned the ten men junior reds to a defeat against Manchester United at St Helens’ Langtree Park.
The defender was on hand to miscue an effort that looped over heroic goalkeeper Daniel Ward and covering Jonjo Shelvey to snatch a draw away from the Reds in a game which they played for 37 minutes with ten men.
Stephen Sama was the unfortunate man as he picked up two yellows for fouls on Manchester United trialist Jeffery Schlupp.
The forward, of German and Ghanaian descent, is on trial from Leicester City and was a thorn in the Reds’ side all evening, particularly that of Sama who was ultimately unable to cope. Schlupp missed two gilt edged chances inside the first five minutes, first firing wide before being denied by a superb save from Ward, who made his first of several stops after making himself big as the striker was sent clean through.
Liverpool started the game slowly but were almost in front against the run of play in the 10th minute as Andre Wisdom darted down the right and found Adam Morgan, who hit the post. United cleared the rebound away and the danger was over.
After a frantic start the game quietened down. In what turned out to be a key moment, Sama was booked after being judged to be pulling back the dangerous Schlupp as he darted towards goal in the 19th minute.
Again, the game seemed to be going into a lull as two evenly matched teams fought for every inch before Jonjo Shelvey sparked the game into life with a thunderous, if fair, tackle on United full back Alex Buttner. This started a lively period leading to the interval which saw a Raheem Sterling cross narrowly evade Adam Morgan, Ward again deny Schlupp, Suso fire a shot straight at Ben Amos and the United keeper cutting out a tap in for Sterling after good work from Joao Teixeria and Morgan.
In the seconds before half time, the card happy official booked Andre Wisdom for persistent fouling and Kristian Adorjan for a tackle on Buttner.
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
In the freezing cold, the Reds emerged for the second half unchanged, but soon found themselves down to ten men as Sama slightly mistimed a tackle on Schlupp and was given his marching orders. As was to be expected, the visitors ramped up the pressure and Daniel Ward was called into action on a number of occasions, doing brilliantly to deny Cole after 59 minutes, who controlled a mishit cross before firing a shot from a tight angle.
Dropping Jonjo Shelvey to right and then left-back, Andre Wisdom went inside to centre-half. Raheem Sterling ploughed a lone furrow up front as Adam Morgan was shifted to the left. The largely anonymous and reportedly unwell Suso remained on the right, but was only able to drift in and out of the match.
Defending doggedly, Liverpool began to grow into the game and Jonjo Shelvey became a real influence to the match. He was on hand to clear a corner off the line after 68 minutes after Ward had again brilliantly denied Schlupp, the Welsh goalkeeper winning that particular duel all evening long.
The key chance for the Reds came after 74 minutes when the lively Teixeria won the ball in the centre of midfield and played through Adam Morgan. Usually an instinctive finisher, the striker panicked and tried to get the ball onto his left foot, by which time the ball was taken from him. The young forward will be disappointed he didn’t get any type of effort away.
The game veered from end to end, with Suso and Teixeria linking up well only for the Spaniard to put his shot over the bar, and Buttner had a shot deflected onto the roof of the net. Even with the numerical disadvantage Liverpool pushed on and Ben Amos had to be at his best to save a shot from Teixeria as the ball was worked to him from a corner. It was a super effort from the Portuguese and an even better save as the ball flew through a crowd of players.
As the game seemed to be headed for a draw the play was interrupted by a section of moronic Manchester United fans lighting a flare and throwing it at Andre Wisdom. The game was held up for a few minutes as the lit flare was removed from the pitch. However, more late drama was to follow as the last attack of the game saw yet more heroics from Ward, only for Fornasier to hit his late winner into the floor and beyond the Welshman and Shelvey.
It was a bitter blow and a tough way to end the match, but Alex Inglethorpe must be pleased with the way his young team fought when they lost a man and continued to carry as much of a threat as Manchester United did in the latter stages.
Team: Ward; Wisdom, Sama, Coady, Roddan; Adorjan, Teixera, Shelvey; Suso, Morgan, Sterling (Dunn)
L4L Man of the Match: Danny Ward
[ad_pod id=’DFP-MPU’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
Want to see Morgan get a proper first team chance . He is ten times better than borini.
Also Rodgers has completely overlooked coady in favor of the useless Allen
We’ve definitely been missing Ngoo and Pacheco over the last two games as well as Smith/Robinson at left back. Game changers in my opinion.