FA Cup (3rd round replay) – Wednesday 13 January 2010 – Result
Liverpool 1 Reading 2(AET)
(HT 1-0 / FT 1-1)
Rafa Benitez: “Everybody has been talking about me but I’ll keep working hard with my team. From the beginning of the season we have been a little bit frustrated but we have to carry on. When you are in the race you need to keep going.
“We are not in the competition [The FA Cup] any more. If the critics are fair, then it’s OK but it’s been the same for three months.
“It was difficult to take as we were in the 92nd minute and winning the game. Everything then changed. We started the second half better with more control of the game but after this we were making some mistakes and they had chances.
“We played a strong team and we tried to win the game. Sometimes you don’t play as well as you can and sometimes the other team plays well.”
Reading boss Brian McDermott: “I thought for the whole 120 minutes we were terrific and I thought we were good value for the victory. It’s fantastic for the football club, it’s great for the chairman and everyone associated with the club.
“We did our work yesterday and the day before, we knew how we wanted to play. We felt before the game we could come and give a performance but that is not what it’s all about, it’s about winning games.
“I’ve been around the game a long time, I think people forget that. I’ve been in football for 32 years and I think this is my time now. I’m a novice manager in terms of games but I really believe this is my time.”
Liverpool: 1 Cavalieri, 5 Agger, 22 Insua, 23 Carragher, 27 Degen (Skrtel 91), 4 Aquilani, 8 Gerrard (Babel 46), 15 Benayoun, 21 Lucas, 9 Torres (Ngog 29), 18 Kuyt
Subs: 42 Gulacsi, 12 Aurelio, 37 Skrtel, 26 Spearing, 19 Babel, 24 Ngog, 47 Pacheco
Booked: Degen,
Goal: Bertrand (og) 45+1
Reading: 1 Federici, 5 Mills, 16 Ingimarsson, 24 Bertrand, 4 Cisse (Howard 59), 6 Gunnarsson, 11 McAnuff, 20 Karacan (Long 81), 25 Sigurdsson, 18 Church, 23 Rasiak (Kebe 65)
Subs: 21 Hamer, 26 Pearce, 7 Tabb, 8 Matejovsky, 14 Kebe, 34 Howard, 9 Long
Booked: Mills, Ingimarsson, Gunnarsson
Goals: Sigurdsson (pen) 90+4, Long 100
Referee: Phil Dowd
Attendance: 31,063
Stats: (Liverpool – Reading)
Possession: 57% – 43%
Attempts on target: 9 – 5
Attempts off target: 6 – 4
Corners: 9 – 2
Fouls: 17 – 14
Via 3 players Alonso,Garcia and Nunez it was Houlliers team that won the 5th big ears – and FA cup give or take a few more additions .What has Benitez won with 5 years of building his team (players) .Also its fair to say 2 of the best players in the team at present also played for Houllier ( Gerrard and Carra )