LONDON: Liverpool suffered a stunning FA Cup exit on Sunday in a 1-0 defeat to Championship strugglers Plymouth, while Aston Villa inflicted another damaging 2-1 defeat on Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou.
Arne Slot’s decision to field a weakened team came back to haunt him, with Ryan Hardie’s second-half penalty sealing Plymouth’s epic upset and ending Liverpool’s quest for a quadruple at Home Park.
Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Andrew Robertson and Cody Gakpo were among the stars rested as Slot made 10 changes from the team that thrashed Tottenham 4-0 in the League Cup semi-final second leg on Thursday.
In a remarkably successful first season in charge of the Reds, it was a rare blunder by the former Feyenoord boss.
It was only the fourth time that a team top of the Premier League had been eliminated from the FA Cup by a lower division club.
“We were not having a very good day. A result like this is the outcome,“ Slot said.
Masterminding a famous victory over Liverpool while fighting to haul Plymouth off the bottom of the Championship was no hardship for Argyle manager Miron Muslic, who was a refugee from war-torn Bosnia as a child.
Muslic — hired by Plymouth to replace the sacked Wayne Rooney in January — was forced to move to Austria aged nine after escaping his home town of Bihac after it fell under siege by Serbian forces in 1992.
Plymouth had already beaten Premier League side Brentford in the third round, but their victory against West Brom last weekend was their first in the league since November.
“I’m speechless, and normally they tell me I’m eloquent! It’s a big day for us,“ said Muslic. “It’s a magical day. I told the lads in the locker room to enjoy it.”
In the circumstances, Plymouth’s superb performance will rank as one of the FA Cup’s greatest giant-killings.
Slot wore an exasperated expression that summed up Liverpool’s lethargy even before Darko Gyabi’s overhead kick was blocked by Harvey Elliott’s raised arm in the 54th minute.
It was a clear penalty and Hardie kept his composure to send Caoimhin Kelleher the wrong way from the spot.
Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez were denied by fine saves from Conor Hazard in stoppage-time as Home Park erupted in celebration of an astonishing result.
Pressure mounts on Postecoglou
Fresh from their thrashing at Anfield to exit the League Cup on Thursday, another chance at ending Spurs’ long wait for silverware went awry for the under-fire Postecoglou.
The writing was on the wall for the visitors after just one minute when goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky let Jacob Ramsey’s shot through his grasp.
Son Heung-min missed a huge chance to level for an injury-ravaged Tottenham when he was denied by Emiliano Martinez before half-time.
Morgan Rogers sealed Spurs’ fate when he blasted in from close range 25 minutes from time.
Villa could then afford the luxury of introducing Marcus Rashford for his first appearance since completing a loan move from Manchester United.
But it was another January signing who made an impressive impact off the bench as Mathys Tel produced a deft finish for his first Tottenham goal in stoppage time.
The consolation was too little, too late for Spurs on the night and potentially for Postecoglou to hold onto his job.
Without a trophy since 2008, Tottenham sit 14th in the Premier League and now have only Europa League glory to play for this season.
“Nothing really changes,“ said Postecoglou on his future.
“There’ll be an opportunity to recover now and get some players back over the next couple of weeks. We look forward to resetting and finishing the season strong.”
Wolves cruised into the fifth round as two goals in the space of 39 seconds from Joao Gomes and Matheus Cunha sealed a 2-0 win at second-tier Blackburn.
