Wirtz blushes saved by brilliant forgotten Liverpool man as Fofana costs Chelsea twice

A game between two imperfect football teams still coming to terms with the demands of their new managers played out exactly as you might expect. There were signs of what the end goals are for Andoni Iraola and Xabi Alonso but far more evidence of just how far they both have to travel to get Liverpool and Chelsea up to that level.

The first port of call to reach their respective end-states should be to cut out stupid mistakes after Ryan Gravenberch and Wesley Fofana both committed ridiculous infringements to concede penalties.

Maybe Gravenberch didn’t know Moises Caicedo was there. The only other explanation for crunching through both of the Chelsea man’s legs without getting to the ball as he headed pretty harmlessly away from goal is pure, unadulterated idiocy, albeit a fleeting moment of it for an otherwise intelligent footballer.

Fofana’s gaffe didn’t feel in any way remarkable insofar as when the referee pointed to the spot and then to his raised arm to indicate a handball we assumed the Frenchman was the culprit. He wasn’t marking anyone or even jumping, but leaning on one of his teammates with his hand inexplicably in the air.

Not playing Fofana would be a simple way for Alonso to cut the Chelsea idiocy in half but the sight of Maxence Lacroix limping off while holding his hamstring means the nitwit looks set for greater involvement in the weeks to come, not less.

The effervescence of Rio Ngumoha meant Liverpool edged a pretty uninteresting first half besides, and while Chelsea evened proceedings up after the break thanks largely to the growing influence of Morgan Rogers, it felt as though the key to breaking the game open was sat watching from the sidelines. Specifically from Liverpool’s £575m bench.

Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola entered the fray on the hour mark and were followed 20 minutes later by fellow £100m+ man Alexander Isak. But if anything, it was Chelsea’s substitutes – with Estevao conspicuous by his absence in this game – that had the greater impact.

Valentin Barco has that ‘buzzing around’ quality, not unlike Paris Saint-Germain’s diminutive midfielders, and debutant striker Emmanuel Emegha made some decent runs and caused the Liverpool defenders problems with his physicality.

Joe Gomez – making just his second start of the season – produced some stunning work at both ends of pitch within the space of a few seconds shortly after the first wave of the Liverpool cavalry arrived. After driving a brilliant cross straight to Ronaldo Araujo, who really should have directed his header to one side of Mike Penders, Gomez then rushed back to deny Rogers with an excellent block.

He was brilliant all night and scored the last and perhaps most top-corner penalty in a very strange shootout which saw the next taker attempt to go harder and higher into the postage stamp. Both teams missed an opportunity to win it before Liverpool eventually triumphed. Gravenberch, Konstantinos Tsimikas and Emegha all missed, but it was Fofana’s blaze over the bar which proved decisive.

Just as Andoni Iraola is tired of answering questions about him, we don’t particularly want to keep banging on about Florian Wirtz. But once again, he was hard to ignore.

He converted his penalty perfectly well but really should have won the game in normal time. Six yards out, with the ball bouncing perfectly from Cody Gakpo’s header across into the path of a right swinger, Wirtz contrived to shin a shot which wasn’t on target and was blocked by Levi Colwill in any case.

Wirtz’s very next action was to play a relatively simple through ball straight out of play.

If Iraola turning to a ludicrously expensive bench and them having such a limited impact is the story, as the commentators and Sky Sports cameras as good as dictated by constantly highlighting their £575m worth, then Wirtz is key to that story after missing the golden chance and failing to create anything besides.

It’s fine – Liverpool are through. And again, we would dearly love to change the Reds record; maybe even be positive about the Germany international. But as it is it’s Joe Gomez who gets his flowers at Anfield on a night when Fofana’s idiocy did for Alonso and Chelsea.