There are many ways to say the word ‘goal’.
‘Strike’, ‘cracker’, ‘stunner’, ‘thunderbastard’ and ‘whack’ are all synonyms for the ball crossing the line in spectacular fashion.
Whatever your word of choice is, all of them would be suitable for the Ruben Neves strike which ended up knocking Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool out of the FA Cup on Monday night.
The Reds turned up with an understrength side to the ground at which they had beaten Nuno Espírito Santo’s 2-0 in a recent Premier League match, but from the off it was clear that the reserves would not suffice.
Dejan Lovren’s forced substitution through injury didn’t help proceedings, though debutante Ki-Jana Hoever performed well when introduced, but in truth Liverpool were second best all over the pitch compared to their hosts.
Wolves took the lead in the first half thanks to a lovely move and finish from Raul Jimenez, before Divock Origi popped up with a lovely finish from outside the box to equalise shortly after half-time.
Klopp’s team came into the game more after this, but failed to capitalise on their parity, and in the end it was an absolutely strike/cracker/stunner/thunderbastard/whack which settled proceedings.
That goal came courtesy of Wolves’ Portuguese maestro Ruben Neves, who picked up the ball outside of Liverpool’s box in the 56th minute and launched a dipping effort beyond the reach of Mignolet.
The stat is now that Neves has scored nine goals for Wolves, eight of them coming from outside the box.
Liverpool were unable to claw back an equaliser in the remaining 35 minutes and in truth it was a worthy winner.
🚀 | @rubendsneves_ pic.twitter.com/zecOXYTczM
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) January 7, 2019
