11 months ago
195 Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher praised Kostas Tsimikas for a timely intervention he made in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final win over West Ham.
The Reds cruised to a 5-1 victory over the hapless Hammers at Anfield to secure a place in the semi-finals of the competition, where they’ll meet Fulham.
However, there was one moment in the game where Liverpool were at risk of conceding an equaliser when leading by just one goal.
In the 54th minute, West Ham got behind the Reds defence for the first time in the night as Ben Johnson played the ball up the line to allow Jarrod Bowen to run into the box.
The Hammers winger whipped the ball in across the face of goal, but Tsimikas was on hand to slide in and cut the ball out, cue relief among the Liverpool ranks.
“It needed that touch from Tsimikas at the back post,” Carragher said of the £12million man on Sky Sports.
Had West Ham scored then, it would’ve been 1-1 and it may have been a completely different game. The Hammers would’ve fancied their chances of at least going to penalties.
Instead, Liverpool ended up scoring a second not long after, and from then on the floodgates opened, with West Ham managing a mere consolation goal.
Liverpool run riot against hapless West Ham to reach Carabao Cup semi-finals
Dominik Szoboszlai had opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a ferocious effort from 30 yards out after a sustained spell of Liverpool pressure.
In the 56th minute, Darwin Nunez threaded the ball through to Curtis Jones, who had no option to cut back to and ended up just slotting through Alphonse Areola’s legs from a tight angle.
Then, on 71 minutes, Ibrahima Konate dribbled into the final third before setting up Cody Gakpo, who fired into the bottom corner of the West Ham keeper’s net.
Bowen struck a consolation for the visitors in the 77th minute, but Liverpool quickly restored their three-goal advantage through Mohamed Salah on the counter.
Then, Jones added the cherry on top with his second of the night on 84 minutes, running virtually unopposed at the Hammers defence before steering the ball past Alphonse Areola.
A great day (or should that be night) at the proverbial office for Liverpool, and Tsimikas certainly did well overall.
In the first half, he made amends from an error of judgement as he then weighed in with a good challenge to clear up the danger.
Then came the second-half intervention, and at the other end, he made some great overlapping runs to get into dangerous positions to cross.
All in all, a solid display from the Greece international.
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