The 18-year-old was back in the Reds’ matchday squad for the first time since September following an ankle injury.
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Harvey Elliott enjoyed a dream return from injury on Sunday after the teenager scored during Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Cardiff City in the Emirates FA Cup fourth round. The 18-year-old was back in the Reds’ matchday squad for the first time since September following an ankle injury. On Sunday, he had a positive impact on the pitch. The youngster came off the bench and produced a lively display. Elliott capped his fine outing by netting his team’s third goal at Anfield on Sunday. After the match, manager Jurgen Klopp was understandably delighted with Harvey Elliott’s impressive return to the team, calling it a proper “fairy tale”.
In the post-match press conference, Klopp, while speaking about Harvey Elliott, said, “With the goal it became obviously a proper fairy tale to be honest. In my mind I had the situation, it’s not nice but it came up, in Leeds when we lost him with this horrible injury. All the way through he was very patient and our medical department did obviously an incredible job with him, but he was patient enough to do all the necessary steps. Coming then on is already a great step back, but scoring this nice goal makes it a proper fairy tale so I am really happy for him. He was over the moon! It was properly touching. So, all good.”
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Meanwhile, new January signing Luis Diaz made his debut on Sunday. He made an instant impact, setting up Takumi Minamino to slot in the second goal. Earlier, Diogo Jota got the Reds underway with a fine header. There was also a moment of concern on the pitch when Diaz suffered a knock on his knee.
Asked about it, Klopp said, “Good, thank God! It was a scary moment, that’s true. The goal he set up for Taki was absolutely incredible: high press, counter-press, I love it, and then Taki finished it off. Then, the long ball, the heading challenge, he goes down [and] holds his knee afterwards. We were all really shocked.”
“I had a look on the screen and I saw that everything was fine in the air, everything was fine when he came down, but then I saw the big fella of Cardiff standing on his knee and he has now a bruise there and a scar, it’s red and a little bit open. We all said to him, ‘Welcome to England!’ Now he has his first assist and his first little scar. That’s absolutely OK. I don’t think it will be any more serious – maybe tomorrow he feels it more and we have to react to that, but it’s nothing serious.”
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