This will have felt like exorcising a few demons for Liverpool – demons from a quarter of a century ago and demons from far more recently.
The Crystal Palace fans unfurled a huge banner showing Alan Pardew celebrating his winning goal from that epic FA Cup semi-final in 1990 but his team simply failed to do enough to beat Liverpool this time round. Instead it is Liverpool who go forward into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, and do so with a growing sense of momentum and destiny.
Poster boy: Palace fans pay tribute to Alan Pardew's winner in 1990
Unlike 25 years ago Liverpool prevailed; unlike last May, when they surrendered a three-goal advantage, Liverpool prevailed. But it was a more recent blow, the 3-1 defeat only last November, that manager Brendan Rodgers referenced as the low point of this season – a low point that became a turning point.
“It was my responsibility to find a way to make it work,” Rodgers said. “It wasn’t working back then, with key players out. We had to arrest that negative momentum and try and get the team back playing with the intensity and aggression they had done for nearly two years. We had to have an intervention after that defeat here.”
Liverpool are getting back. They made that intervention. Partly because Daniel Sturridge is back – and his goal drew them level – but largely because Rodgers has done what he does best: he is coaching the most effect out of what he has. Rodgers has even finally provoked a positive reaction from Mario Balotelli who came on as a half-time substitute and helped create the winning goal.
What a result and great banter by my boy @lfc18alberto doing my dance. On to the next one on Thursday!! http://t.co/ZCJD9Hf9sS
— Daniel Sturridge (@D_Sturridge) February 14, 2015
“Now the penny has dropped,” Rodgers said of the striker while Adam Lallana – who scored that winning goal after Julián Speroni could only parry Balotelli’s powerful low free-kick – spoke of how his team-mate can be a great player “when he works hard”.
Pardew was less convinced. “I thought he gave away a penalty by grabbing [Brede] Hangeland,” he said. “But he does things like that. There were a couple of instances of typical Balotelli but he had an influence on the game – great hit for the second goal, nice moments into his feet. Brendan is searching for him to truly arrive. He’s had a good week this week.”
Balotelli has, having scored the winning goal against Tottenham Hotspur in midweek, but Liverpool have also which is all the more significant because, as Lallana observed, they are entering the “business end of the season”.
But it was all the more galling for Palace given they went ahead. It was a goal that raised questions over the defending of Martin Skrtel and the goalkeeping of Simon Mignolet who has worked hard to rehabilitate himself after suffering a football form of the yips.
Joe Ledley flighted the ball towards Dwight Gayle but Skrtel should have cut it out. Instead it skimmed off his head and into Gayle’s path. The striker headed goalwards for Mignolet to beat the ball out, but weakly. It fell straight to Frazier Campbell who gleefully volleyed into the net.
Would that be the spur for Palace, at home, under the floodlights, in front of their raucous support? Curiously it was not. “The goal made us a bit negative, we sat back a bit too much,” Pardew said. “Liverpool had a grip of the game from the off, too much really.”
They also had a grip on the chances. There were 15 efforts in all in the first half alone but Liverpool failed to take any of them: Speroni saved superbly from Lallana’s low shot, then from Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho’s effort was blocked – and then Sturridge should have had a penalty as his leg was hooked by debutant Pape Souaré. Lazar Markovic fizzed a shot narrowly wide and then sent another over.
But it was Palace who missed the best chance. Or rather Mignolet saved it. Again the ball bounced off Skrtel and dropped into Gayle’s path. Through on goal his low shot was blocked by the goalkeeper with his outstretched boot.
“That turned out to be a pivotal moment,” Pardew lamented. “Dwight is usually very efficient in those moments, and I was surprised he missed. Or the goalkeeper saved it. He’s usually clinical in those moments. But it didn’t go in and, of course, then the game was difficult.”
Pardew sensed, rightly, that Palace could not hold out. And they did not as Balotelli came on to partner Sturridge for the first time since the pair had played so effectively together at the start of the season against Tottenham.
Once again Liverpool worked the ball forward but this time Palace were undone by a delicate, precise chip by Henderson that picked out the run of Sturridge who had placed himself between two defenders. The striker wonderfully guided his left-foot volley to beat Speroni and Liverpool were level.
Undone: Julian Speroni fails to keep out Daniel Sturridge's goal
It was developing into an enthralling encounter and Palace then forced Mignolet into a smart save, as he pushed out Gayle’s volley, before Liverpool again began to apply the pressure. A free-kick was won, after a quick exchanges of passes between Balotelli and Henderson with Scott Dann tripping the Italian. Balotelli thumped it in, through the wall, and, such was its force, that Speroni could only parry. The rebound fell to the onrushing Lallana. Liverpool had overturned the tie.
“I thought we were outstanding,” Rodgers said. “After that first goal, I thought the team looked very good after that. It’s certainly a different feeling to when we were here before.” Those demons have truly been exorcised.
Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1) Speroni 5; Kelly 5 (Guedioura 63), Dann 6, Hangeland 6, Souare 6; Ward 6 Ledley 6; Bolasie 6 (Zaha 72), Chamakh 6 (Puncheon 45) Gayle 7; Campbell 7. Subs Hennessey (g), Mariappa, Murray, Delaney. Booked Chamakh.
Liverpool (3-4-3) Mignolet 5; Sakho 6, Skrtel 5, Can 7; Coutinho 6 (Lovren 78), Lallana 6, Moreno 6, Henderson 7; Allen 6, Markovic 6 (Balotelli 45), Sturridge 7 (Lambert 78). Subs Ward (g), Johnson, Manquillo, Borini. Booked Henderson, Can, Mignolet.
Referee R Madley (West Yorks).
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