Murray Wood: How young is too young to bring kids to sports games
How young is too young to bring children to a stadium? After taking his six-year-old grandson to watch the Riders, Murra...
Canadian international Liam Millar started for Liverpool on Tuesday as the Premier League leaders, fielding its youngest-ever team, reached the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time under Jurgen Klopp.
The German manager wasn’t at Anfield to see it.
With Klopp determined that he and his senior players had the week off during English soccer’s new mid-season break, Liverpool put out a starting 11 with an average age of 19 years 102 days for the fourth-round replay against third-tier Shrewsbury on Tuesday.
The kids, led for the game by under-23 coach Neil Critchley, came through, winning 1-0 to set up a last-16 match they probably won’t be playing in. It will be at Chelsea in early March.
An own-goal in the 75th minute settled the match and it was scored by Ro-Shaun Williams, a former youth-team player for Liverpool’s fierce rival, Manchester United.
“WHAT A NIGHT,” Millar said on Instagram.
Millar, a 20-year-old from Brampton, Ont., has won eight caps for Canada. He was 14 when he made his debut in the Canadian youth program in 2014 and 18 when he made his senior debut for Canada in March 2018. He represented Canada at last summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The young Canadian forward returned to Anfield from a loan spell at Kilmarnock in early January and had been playing for Liverpool’s under-23 side. He re-joined the Scottish side last August after signing a new deal with the Reds. He made 22 appearances with one goal for Kilmarnock this season before the clubs agreed to end his loan deal during the current transfer window.
He’d previously spent the latter half of 2018-19 at Kilmarnock.
Shrewsbury had few chances at Anfield but did have a goal ruled out by VAR for offside in the 58th minute.
The win keeps alive Liverpool’s chances of a treble. The Reds are closing in on winning the English league title for the first time in 30 years, and are through to the last 16 of the Champions League.
ROONEY TO FACE UNITED
Wayne Rooney is set for a reunion with Manchester United.
The former England captain scored for his new team, Derby County, in its 4-2 win over Northampton in a replay.
Second-tier Derby advanced to a home game against Man United, where Rooney spent 13 years and became the club’s all-time top scorer while winning five Premier League titles, the Champions League in 2008 and the FA Cup in 2016.
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With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2020.
The Canadian Press
