GOAL! Liverpool – Accrington Stanley 1-0 (Jota 29)

29 mins: Walton steals the ball from the dozing Szoboszlai and breaks away down the right side. However, Walton isn’t going anywhere, but an overzealous Mgumoha arrives to promote him. A free kick and a chance for Stanley to load the penalty area. Ben Woods makes it, but can’t beat the first man. Then Liverpool counterattacks and…

27 mins: … Endo shoulders harmlessly far to the left.

26 mins: Tsimikas pushes through the middle and parries into the penalty area. Morton heads over the goal from the right. Jota can’t shoot the loose ball into the goal, but it’s enough to win a corner. From which…

24 mins: Walton chases a long ball down the right side. He gets to the goal first and has opportunities in the middle, but slips while trying to cross and the ball flies into the head. Or was it a shot? All academic. Either way it’s not good.

23 mins: Anfield is pretty quiet now. Completed Stanley’s first task.

21 mins: Nunez tries to advance down the left sideline. Love stands awkwardly on his foot. A scream. Just a free kick, no yellow card. Stanley’s right-back can count himself somewhat lucky. Nunez is soon back on his feet.

19 mins: Whalley finds some space again on the left and the Stanley captain wins a corner ahead of Tsimikas. A first for Stanley. Whalley performs a loop. Kelleher flutters under it, an unconvincing shot, but it’s blocked by Josh Woods. The whistle sounds. Stanley is encouraged by these early deployments to Liverpool territory.

17 mins: Whalley fouls Szoboszlai on the left side. Tsimikas swings the free kick into the mixer and the ball is hit to the next corner. This isn’t good either. It’s all Liverpool, but Crellin has only had to make one save so far.

16 minutes: Ngumoha is certainly not the type to hide. He is the first to strike towards the goal and then fires the shot wildly towards the right sideline. But he is immediately back in the middle and runs baroquely down the left side to win a corner. Nothing comes of the standard situation, but the young man has already won some fans in the audience. More warm applause.

14 mins: There is some space for Whalley at the bottom left. His cross shot is deflected high and falls to Josh Woods on the right side of the six-yard box. Woods can’t force a shot on goal and clears Quansah Plunderer. Stanley looks dangerous for the first time.

12 minutes: Ngumoha turns elegantly down the left side and feeds Tsimikas, who rolls a pass across the penalty area from Stanley. Szoboszlai plays for Alexander-Arnold, who drives low and hard to the bottom left. Crellin in the Stanley goal saves with his foot, but the ball ends up at Nunez, who shoots over the goal. Now that is a poor lady.

11 mins: Liverpool stroked it patiently. No rush.

9 minutes: Stanley uses a bold high press. Liverpool need all their intelligence to play from the back. This time they need a sweet, if somewhat dangerous, crossfield lob from Tsimikas.

7 minutes: Tsimikas curls long curls from the left. Elliott lunges forward from the right and extends a leg to hammer the ball back into the middle, where Nunez heads over the bar from close range. That’s not as bad as it sounds: He leaned back and stretched every muscle in his neck to reach a ball that was just too high.

5 minutes: Another interesting dribble from Ngumoha, who penetrates from the left but fails to notice a few red shirts in space on the other side. The young man still receives warm applause.

3 minutes: Elliot scans to the right; Ngumoha has his first dribble in a Liverpool shirt on the left. Nothing happens on either side. Stanley tries to counter and misses Walton for a long time, but Endo wins the duel again.

2 minutes: Tsimikas looks for Szoboszlai on the left for a long time. For a second it looks like Szoboszlai is going to get in, but Rawson comes past and stops his canter. Fine cover.

1 minute: A long ball over the Stanley right. Walton competes with Endo, but Liverpool’s makeshift centre-back – who, to be fair, has plenty of experience in the position from his Bundesliga days – takes the ball to a goal kick.

Accrington Stanley gets the ball rolling. They step towards the Kop in this first half. “Who wouldn’t love a defensive line full of love and reverence?” coos Dean Kinsella.

The teams are out! Anfield crisp, clear and cold. And loud. A beautiful day on Merseyside, but one you don’t want to experience without a big coat. Liverpool in red. Accrington Stanley, who also normally play in red, are in blue today. Everyone looks really good. We’re leaving in a few minutes.

Stanley captain Shaun Whalley is asked by ITV’s Gabriel Clarke about the possibility of scoring at the Kop end. A broad smile immediately spreads across his face. “Yes, I would like that,” Whalley replies. Then he adds with a wink: “To be honest, I probably wouldn’t celebrate. I have too many friends in there!” A laugh as he walks away, dreaming of all the possibilities. The magic of the cup, right there.

Accrington Stanley manager John Doolan speaks to ITV. “Just excitement… you can see the drive in them… it’s a fantastic day… we just want to get going… it’s special isn’t it… the guys who got us three points last week get the jersey… you can don’t go to the mood… (former Liverpool academy player Liam Coyle) is a fantastic player and I’m sure he’ll be on the pitch at some point… you have to do a professional job… Liverpool are a fantastic team… we have to it Try to force our game on them…take care of the ball a little better…combine them and see where that takes us…we have a game plan…we’ll do our best.”

Arne Slot speaks to ITV. “For almost every other country, the cup is not that special… Everyone knows that the cup means a little more than it… It’s a special game for us… A lot of players who are in the starting line-up haven’t played much for us… Me I understand that there is something more. The tension in the away dressing room is greater than in the home dressing room… but I hope and expect that our players also want to prove their point… most of them haven’t played that much recently… there aren’t many options… (Dominik) Szoboszlai was sick… that’s why we used him… The reason for Trent (Alexander-Arnold) is that Conor (Bradley) is coming back with a hamstring injury and we played a game two days ago… so I didn’t feel it was the right decision to play against Conor again…it’s always special when young players make their debut…so I have a smile on my face…Rio Ngumoha is not afraid to do that, what he’s good at… one on one.”

He was also asked about David Moyes’ return to the other side of Stanley Park. “It’s always a shame when a manager has to go… I was a bit surprised because (Sean Dyche) got a few good results… a few draws that nobody expected… but David Moyes is always special because he’s for Everton did… he did that successfully at West Ham too… so it’s good to have him back… but it’s always a shame that someone who I thought did really well is now unemployed.”

Liverpool give 16-year-old attacker Rio Ngumoha his debut. At 16 years and 135 days, he becomes Liverpool’s youngest ever starter. Trent Alexander-Arnold will be given the opportunity to return to form – to be fair, he made a decent appearance as a substitute in Spurs’ League Cup semi-final – but contract negotiators Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are both rested. It may raise eyebrows that Ngumoha is coming in ahead of Federico Chiesa, who sits on the bench, even though the young man was one of the Guardian’s next-generation talents for 2024.

Accrington Stanley name an unchanged side after their 2-0 win at Colchester United. Captain Shaun Whalley scored both goals in that game and another in Stanley’s previous game, a 3-2 home win against Grimsby Town. Striker Josh Woods is a Liverpool fan whose childhood idols were Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.

The teams

This feels a bit too contrived, but today is National Milk Day in the USA. A national holiday that is second only to Thanksgiving. It is observed to honor the day in 1878 when milk was first delivered in glass bottles sealed with wax paper and to recognize the critical role played by the United States Department of Agriculture in ensuring that U.S. milk is the best of its kind class is. I can’t help but think that Accrington Stanley and the FA marketing departments have missed a trick from the official partners here. Let America lactate again?

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