Manchester United v Liverpool: FA Cup quarter-final – live

Afternoon everyone and welcome to the latest gig on Jürgen Klopp’s farewell tour. It’s the last of this year’s FA Cup quarter-finals, it’s the tie of the round, and yet it feels as if it could be horribly one-sided. Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United keep being over-run and there’s no team better at over-running than Klopp’s Liverpool. At the bookies, United are rated more likely to lose 4-1 than they are to win 1-0. And that’s with home advantage.

Still, this is the FA Cup, which always offers some hope to the plucky little outsider. United managed to scrape a 0-0 draw at Anfield in December, when their injuries were worse than Liverpool’s, and now the reverse is true. Marcus Rashford has a habit of scoring in big games, Rasmus Højlund should be back to lead the line, and if Aaron Wan-Bissaka returns too, United will actually have two full-backs who know what they’re doing.

Klopp, though, is in a different league from Ten Hag, and was even before he began this victory march. He has built a machine that runs the same way regardless of the names that happen to be on the team sheet. And now he has turned an injury crisis into an opportunity, grabbing the chance to bring on a crop of young players who can’t be called promising because they’re already delivering.

If Rashford doesn’t put in a defensive shift, Conor Bradley is going to have a party. If Joe Gomez is needed at left-back, Jarell Quansah will step up and be Virgil van Dijk’s mini-me. If Diogo Dalot is at all uncomfortable on the left, Mo Salah will add to his stash of goals against United. If Harry Maguire comes back and shows signs of rust, Darwin Nunez will run rings round him.

United, so hot and cold at home this season, are going to have to be on fire today. But, of all the competitions they’ve taken part in under Klopp, this is the one that Liverpool have found the trickiest. This is only the second time Klopp has ever been involved in an FA Cup quarter-final, after 2022, when Liverpool won at Nottingham Forest. That worked out all right: they beat Man City in a memorable semi-final and then Chelsea, on penalties, in a less memorable final. One person who may remember it is Mason Mount, yet another United player in contention for a comeback today. He took Chelsea’s last penalty and saw it saved.

Meanwhile, back in the present, kick-off is at 3.30pm GMT and the team news will be here shortly.