(Football news) Defending FA Cup winners Liverpool were undone by two defensive blunders which allowed Wolves to claim a 2-2 draw and earn a replay in the third-round tie at Anfield on Saturday. A disjointed Liverpool looked to have recovered from a horrible goalkeeping error by Alisson as he gifted a simple chance to Goncalo Guedes who gave Wolves the lead but Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah scored either side of half-time. More poor defending from Jurgen Klopp’s side allowed substitute Hwang Hee-Chan to give the team a deserved replay at Molineux later this month.

Liverpool gave their new Dutch forward Cody Gakpo his first start but he created little going forward before they fell behind on 26 minutes. Thiago first lost the ball from an Alisson throw out and the Brazilian gave the ball back to the Wolves player, passing it straight to Guedes who gratefully accepted with a simple finish. The hosts seemed to be a little shell-shocked, offering little to suggest an equaliser was forthcoming but a moment of brilliance saw them go into the half-time interval on level..

Trent Alexander-Arnold picked the ball on the halfway line and nailed an inch perfect diagonal pass onto the foot of Nunez who scored with a first time volley. Having come out of half-time with more intensity, Liverpool took that momentum and found themselves in front. There was an element of fortune involved as Salah looked to be clearly in an offside position from a pass over the Wolves defence. But a VAR review rendered the Egyptian onside before he turned and finished into the corner of the net.

Liverpool’s horrible defending allowed them to tie the game once more at 2-2. Hwang was allowed to go inside the Liverpool box before slipping the ball to fellow substitute Matheus Cunha who slid in to meet the return pass with his short deflecting off Ibrahima Konate before squirming through the legs of Alisson. More drama followed when Wolves thought they had a stunning late winner through Toti Gomez but were denied by an offside flag. A long VAR check followed but, to the anger of Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui on the sideline, an offside was confirmed.

“It was a good start, a dominant start. We played really good football moments and then we conceded. The goal should not happen, but we all know how often Ali [Alisson] saves our backsides.

“They had counter-attacks before then, it is always dangerous when [Adama] Traore gets the ball. We could see that. We came back with a fantastic equaliser, everything was clear at half-time what we wanted to improve and change to cause them more problems.

“Then it was a dominant performance before they got a foot in the game and we didn’t win enough challenges from there. They caused us massive problems. We kept the problems in the game. The equaliser was unlucky, but he should not be able to work into our box.” – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told ITV

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