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Sun. March 16, 2025
FA Cup - Quarter Final
Dover (2nd in Barclays Premier League) vs. Liverpool (12th in Barclays Premier League)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK
Betting Odds: Dover: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Liverpool: 7-2
Past Meetings: 7W 3D 10L
Liverpool stunned us about a month ago, beating us 3-1 here at Crabble Athletic Ground in Premier League play. I want revenge today! The FA Cup is the one major trophy we have yet to lift here at Dover and I’m taking this game quite seriously despite having a Champions League game coming up in three nights. Piotr Parzyszek is leading the club with 14 goals.
We’ll start a pretty strong lineup as a result but one with some changes. Manuel Lugo will start up front with Chiquinho today. We’ll go with a central midfield of Neil Cairney and Andrea Rocca today and Rafinha is in for the injured Renato Gaucho on defence. Mads Pedersen will slip in at left midfield for Arsene Bamba today. Captain Salim Loucif is healthy and starts in his familiar right fullback spot and Gianluca Bolis also returns from injury today.
Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - Rafinha, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - M. Pedersen, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - M. Lugo, Chiquinho
Bench - Emerson, S. Nasri, E. Harvey, B. Raab, A. Bamba, G. Allan, A. Broomes
Liverpool are in their 4-2-3-1 formation with three attacking central mids, a formation that always gives us trouble. Chris Dunn is in goal and young Oliver Hammeri is up front. Leading scorer Piotr Parzyszek isn’t even dressed so Liverpool aren’t taking this game super-seriously. Lets win this for our fans today.
HALFTIME - We are having trouble breaking them down and their counter attack has been dangerous. We held 57% of possession and a 12-7 (4-2 on target) shot advantage. I’m pulling back into a counter attacking formation to tighten up at the back and hopefully we’ll be the one to hit them on the break.
62’ - We need to liven things up here. Andy Broomes comes in for Manuel Lugo and Benedikt Raab is in for Andrea Rocca. Back to a control mentality as well.
86’ - Nothing happening despite lots of pressure on our part. In comes Graham Allan for Gianluca Bolis.
Geez. We just can’t beat these guys…
Dover 0 - 0 Liverpool
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Chris Dunn (Liverpool GK - 8.0)
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.9), Claudio Conteras (7.0), Rafinha (7.2)
Attendance - 23,000 (Sell-Out)
We just can’t break them down despite holding 56% of possession and a 19-10 (6-3 on target) shot advantage. We’ll have to head to Liverpool for a replay now.
FA Cup - Semi Final Draw
-- If we’re able to get past Liverpool in our replay, we’ll host the winner of the Reading/Manchester City replay. The other semi will see Tottenham host Manchester United.
Injury Update
-- Renato Gaucho is about two weeks away from a return from broken ribs. Paul Moses is likely out until next summer.
Champions League Update
-- Barcelona lose 3-2 at home to Shakhtar in a shocker but it’s not enough for the minnow to move on, as Barca win 4-3 on aggregate. Porto easily get past Sevilla 3-0 on aggregate.
Next Up
-- We welcome Atletico Madrid to Crabble Athletic Ground in the second leg of the Champions League first knockout round, with a 1-1 current score.
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