One of the favorites to win the FA Cup was ousted right before the quarterfinal round. On Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool lost 2-0 to Chelsea in the fifth round thanks to goals from Willian and Ross Barkley. The Reds, reeling from the 3-0 loss at Watford on Saturday that snapped the team’s 44-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League, have now lost back-to-back games and can’t seem to find their consistent scoring touch.
A team used to winning by multiple goals, Liverpool has not won comfortably in any of its last six games, losing three of them, and it struggled mightily against Frank Lampard’s team on Tuesday. Liverpool had five shots on goal but all were saved by a Kepa Arrizabalaga, including three in the matter of seconds in the first half.
Chelsea got a fortunate goal 13 minutes in as Adrian failed to handle Willian’s rocket shot that went right at him before Ross Barkley put it away 64 minutes in. The England international was able to gain possession of the ball after fantastic defensive work by Pedro, and Barkley marched nearly the entire attacking half before drilling a shot past his defender and past Adrian. Take a look:
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp brought on Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah to try and get back into it, but the Reds lacked precision in the final third with Chelsea focusing on holding onto the lead, doing is successfully.
Chelsea was without N’Golo Kante, Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham, and the Blues also lost Mateo Kovacic to injury in the first half but managed to dominate a Reds team even with two shots hitting the crossbar.
The Blues move on to the quarterfinals where they’ll find out their opponent during the draw on Wednesday which is set for 4:50 p.m. ET.
For the Reds, they remain in contention in the Champions League and are just weeks away from likely winning the Premier League title.