Takumi Minamino strikes twice as slick Liverpool breeze past Norwich

• Both teams make nine changes

• Minamino scores with right-foot shots in each half

• Kelleher saves Tzolis's first-half penalty

For Jurgen Klopp this was the ideal Carabao Cup night. It was not just the victory and the fact he could give a run out to fringe players, it was also that he could gift a trio of teenagers - Kaide Gordon, Conor Bradley and Tyler Morton - their debut.

“These boys are good,” said Klopp of his youngsters. “And thank God they are ours.”

For his opposite number Daniel Farke things are altogether less rosy. Alarmed by his side’s lapses in their opening Premier League games, he had talked before kick off of needing to find some defensive cohesion, so decided to field three centrebacks. Sadly the system remained robust for all of three minutes before Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas swung in a corner, Divock Origi rose unchallenged to knock it down, and Takumi Minamino was gifted sufficient time by the invisible home defence to turn and send his shot between the legs of Angus Gunn. Tsimikas, Origi, Minamino: a trio unlikely to be seen together outside a Carabao Cup game, perhaps, but they did their job.

Not that Norwich were entirely bereft of chances to respond. Christos Tzolis sent in a cross with which Adam Idah was within a stud’s length of making contact. And then, after Dimitris Giannoulis was felled by Liverpool’s Conor Bradley, they had a penalty. But the first Northern Irishman to play for Liverpool since 1954 had his blushes spared when Tzolis’s spot kick was way too close to Caoimhin Kelleher.

Norwich’s major problem was they faced a Liverpool side which, while it might have featured few who might be considered part of Jurgen Klopp’s first eleven, was still sufficiently strong to include Curtis Jones and Joe Gomez. Both strode around with ease and control, giving Norwich little room in which to manoeuvre. Yet still Norwich had another chance to equalise when Pierre Lees-Milou found himself alone on the penalty spot with the ball arriving at his feet. But he shot over.

A packed Carrow Road was right to groan. Because moments later, Origi delivered a lesson in finishing, planting a perfect header into the corner of the net from Tsimikas’s invitation of a cross. Minamino added a third after he skipped through to poke the ball beyond Gunn. A search party is still out attempting to track down where any of Farke’s back three were as those goals were dispatched.

But what appeared to please Klopp most about this win was the performance of Gordon. Not 17 until next month, he is the fifth youngest player ever to play for Liverpool. Smart, clever, full of adventure, he looked more than good value for the £100,000 his debut cost the club, a desperately welcome cash injection for Derby County.

“We will treat him carefully,” Klopp said of his youngster. At Anfield the future looks as bright as the present.

As it happened

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08:39 PM

Full time

Mind the quality gap. Norwich had their moments for 20 minutes at the end of the first half and some chances on the break in the second but Liverpool have a system that endures whichever members of their squad or Under-23s play. Everyone knew his job and the whole is always greater when you have a coherent, well-grooved method and strategy than the sum of its parts.

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08:37 PM

90+2 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

Minamino is awarded the man of the match bucket of Carabao and the ref blasts three peeps on his Acme Thunderer to end a comfortable victory for Liverpool.

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08:34 PM

90 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

They've switched from Allez x3 to that song from Carousel. Two minutes of injury time go up on the fourth official's board.

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08:33 PM

89 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

Very ragged now and Norwich exploit Liverpool being slow to get back from the corner because the job is well and truly dine to tee up a shot for Idah but he can't trouble Kelleher with his left-foot effort.

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08:32 PM

87 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

Henderson replaces Jones. Liverpool corner that Konate wins in the air but can't keep his header down. Norwixh are terrible at winning defensive headers at corners.

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08:29 PM

85 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

Jones, who has been very good tonight, earns Liverpool their umpteenth corner from which Robertson, not at all with it tonight, hits the first defender.

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08:27 PM

82 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

Pukki makes space by exploiting Robertson's mishandling of the offside-trap trigger but drags his left-foot shot from the left of the area past the far post.

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08:26 PM

80 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 3

Liverpool throw in on the wright. Bradley beats one man and pokes a short pass to Oxlade-Chamberlain who rolls in a yard or so to Minamino. He takes it in his stride, darts past one defender from the right of the box, stops and goes again which surprises Omobamidele who had come over from the Norwich right to help and he slips, leaving the Japan winger to pass it into the net past a scrambling Gunn.

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08:23 PM

GOAL!!!

Norwich 0-3 Liverpool (Minamino)

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08:21 PM

77 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Dowell replaces Lees-Melou for Norwich.

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08:20 PM

75 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Robertson's crossfield pass is picked off by Rupp who darts infield from the Norwich left with Pukki in a good position ahead of him but he takes the shot on himself and blazes it over the bar.

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08:18 PM

73 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Norwich break from the rebound and earn a corner after Gomez races out to block Lees-Melou's shot (and send him flying, too). Nothing comes from the corner.

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08:16 PM

71 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Lees-Melou goes into the book, and rightly so, when he hacks down Jones in full flight dribbling towards the box. In mitigation he slipped before colliding into him.

Robertson and Oxlade-Chamberlain stand in front of the wall and conspire to smack it straight into a thicket of shins.

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08:13 PM

69 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Giannoulis eventually wins it back off Bradley and Norwich have a throw-in.

Double City substitution: Rashica for Mumba, Pukki for Tzolis.

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08:12 PM

68 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Liverpool string couple of dozen passes together, probing and retreating then going again.

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08:09 PM

66 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Liverpool sub: Robertson replaces Tsimikas.

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08:08 PM

65 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Bradley brings down Giannoulis as the two come together with the ball not quite there for either.

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08:06 PM

63 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Kaide Gordon is picked out by Origiand he swivels to fire a half-volley over from 15 yards.

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08:04 PM

60 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Minamino catches Gilmour with his boot in the centre-circle. Norwich free-kick. Nothing good comes of it.

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08:03 PM

58 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Oxlade-Chamberlain bombs down the inside-right, everyone backs off so he lets fly and it takes a deflection that diverts it floatily over the bar.

Tsimikas takes the corner, Gomez leaps to win the header but sends it over the bar.

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08:00 PM

55 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Mumba passes straight to Oxalde-Chamberlain after taking up a good position on the right and all the air goes out of Norwich's balloon.

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07:58 PM

53 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Origi flies up the left at full pelt with he ball under immaculate control as he dribbles, cuts in on to his right and curls a shot towards the back post that bends back in bit not enough to sneak inside the upright.

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07:57 PM

51 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Origi's first club goal for a year and it capped a fine move. Oxlade-Chamberlain swept a pass from right to lefr Keita knocked it down the line for Tsimikas who took it to the byline and stood up a cross to the right of centre, maybe eight yards out. He had made his run, stopped then backed off to earn the space to leap, twist his neck and bury a header into the right of goal.

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07:54 PM

GOAL!! Norwich 0 Liverpool 2

Divock Origi with a fantastic header.

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07:54 PM

49 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

After Jones is penalised for fouling Lees-Melou on the edge of the Norwich box, Tsimikas scythes at a half-volley in frustration and Jones wears it flushin the pie-hole.

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07:52 PM

48 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Another lax Liverpool moment, Bradley is robbed by Giannoulis on the Norwich left, he centres for Tzolis by the penalty spot, slips and the ball fortuitously runs to the right for Lees-Melou who blazes over from 12 yards. Both of them are culpable of wasting a golden opportunity.

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07:50 PM

46 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Liverpool kick-off, now attacking right to left. Rupp intercepts Tsimikas's pass but Gomez bails him out. Morton replaces Keita.

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07:37 PM

Half-time

Norwich are a threat on the break and have improved as the game progressed. But Liverpool are more precise with their passing. more energetic in the press, and slicker. Confidence gives them a swagger that Norwich, because of their struggles against top-flight opponents so far, simply cannot match.

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07:33 PM

45 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Two minutes of injury time are added. Liverpool have a throw on the left just inside their half, Tsimikas takes it, gets it back then hits a cross-field hospital pass that Giannoulis picks off and bombs forward. Bradley contains him by fair means not foul this time.

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07:31 PM

44 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Liverpool break upfield after Gomez's block like a hot knife through butter and Jones bends a left-foot shot inches over.

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07:30 PM

Saved!

Terrible pen from Tzolis, straight down the middle and Kelleher saved with his feet as he dived to his right. Tzolis tries to hook in the rebound but can't get there and Gomez then blocks Gilmour's effort.

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07:28 PM

Norwich penalty

Bradley brings down Giannoulis after Kelleher makes a mess of Tzolis' shot.

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07:26 PM

39 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Hanley nicks the ball of Origi as he was trying to manipulate it into a position to strike at goal. Rupp again then has the chance to hit Liverpool on the counter with a ball over the top of the defence for Tzolis but he gets the weight all wrong for a second time.

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07:24 PM

37 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Gordon scoots in from the right but slips when he enters the box. Still quick enough to get it back and combine with Bradley to hold the ball up until Giannoulis gulls them by earning a throw-in off his shins.

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07:21 PM

35 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Gunn sprays it up the left, Giannoulis takes it on and hares behind Bradley to the byline before cutting a pass back to the 18-yard line where Idah takes on a first-time shot with his instep but it's a gentle pea-roller. HAd to put his laces through it from that distance. Kelleher flops forward to smother it.

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07:19 PM

33 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Gilmour robs Oxlade-Chamberlain who looks desperately in need of games but Liverpool force Norwich back with the speed and power of their pressing to Gunn when Gilmour tried to trigger an attack up the right.

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07:18 PM

30 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Oxlade-Chamberlain takes a blow in the face when up against Gibson, perfectly accidentally. No free-kick but he does go off for a concussion check.

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07:16 PM

29 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Promising move down the right from Norwich also ends when Tzolis makes the wrong decision. Bill Leslie then shoehorns in a Quantum of Tzolis gag that he must have been working on since July.

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07:14 PM

26 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

It's all Liverpool fans so far. All Allez, Allez. Not On the Ball, City.

GIannoulis bursts down the left and is found by Gilmour. He stops and rolls the pass past Bradley for Tzolis who heads for the byline then cuts in but wastes his shot from a tight angle by bungling it behind when he should have crossed.

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07:11 PM

24 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Young Gordon goes slow-slow to lure in Gilmour then quick-quick to dart infield from the right on to his left foot and he skelps a daisycutter six inches past the right post.

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07:10 PM

22 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Liverpool corner on the right this time. Oxlade-Chamberlain takes and it bursts through the other side of the box, Curtis Jones wins it and lays it off to Tsimiaks eventually and Norwich hustle it out for a throw.

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07:05 PM

19 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Gilmour takes and whips a shot that he hopes will head for the top left corner but while he gets it over the wall it keeps rising and sails over the bar into the crowd.

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07:05 PM

17 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Gibson does well to snap into an interception ahead of Origi and send the ball up via Giannoulis to Rupp who is brought down 25 yards out by Gomez. Free-kick, left of centre.

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07:03 PM

15 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Liverpool's high press and relentless closing down in midfield is causing Norwich's midfield to panic and offload too quickly.

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06:59 PM

13 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Liverpool win the header at the corner again, Konate outjumping Hanley but powering his header from 15 yards over the bar.

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06:59 PM

11 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Bradley, wearing the No84 shirt, as high a number as I've seen in England, lets fly with a shot from 30 yards but it takes a deflection and Gunn gathers. Back come Liverpool from the keeper's clearance and Gordon and Bradley combine to earn a free-kick down by the right corner flag that Hanley heads out for a corner on the other side.

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06:57 PM

10 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Tzolis earns a throw-in on the right and heads for the box. Rupp scoops a pass from 35 yards out down the inside-left channel to try to reach him pulling away from Konate but he puts too much force on the pass and it skips out of play.

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06:55 PM

8 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

While Norwich look decent on the break they look wide open at the back.

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06:54 PM

6 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 1

Rip van Norwich go to sleep in the box when Liverpool take a corner from the left, Origi wins the header at the back-post and nods it down, Minamino, turns and bends in a right-foot shot from eight yards.

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06:50 PM

GOAAAAAAL!!

Norwich0-1 Liverpool (Minamino)

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06:50 PM

3 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 0

Bradley sends the ball up the right and Gibson concedes the corner which is well defended and Oxlade-Chamberlain then gives the ball away with a wayward pass through midfield picked off by Lees-Melou and Tsimikas decides to end the counter-attack with a foul on him.

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06:47 PM

1 min: Norwich 0 Liverpool 0

After the players take a knee, Norwich kick off, moving the ball back to Omobamidele, who is indeed on the right of a three, to pump the ball forward and Liverpool knock it out for a throw-in on halfway.

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06:45 PM

Now for a minute's applause

For Jimmy Greaves.

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06:45 PM

The teams are out

Norwich in their traditional yellow and green. Liverpool are wearing their red shirts with orange and white trim.

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06:30 PM

Daniel Farke

Refuses to say whether he is planning to start with three at the back or not but when it is put to him that he has never started a competitive match with one he points to pre-season and some adjustments from four when chasing PL games since the start of the season. I think we can take that as a yes.

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06:19 PM

Those line-ups for those watching in black and white

Norwich City Gunn; Omobamidele, Hanley, Gibson; Mumba Rupp, Gilmour, Giannoulis, Rupp, Lees-Melou, Tzolis, Idah.
Substitutes Krul, Dowell, Kabak, Rashica, Sorensen, Williams, Pukki.

Liverpool: Kelleher, Bradley, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Keita, Minamino, Origi, Gordon.
Substitutes Adrian, Henderson, Jota, Robertson, Phillips, Morton, Balagizi.

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05:58 PM

And a debut for Kaide Gordon for Liverpool

Here's Chris Bascombe on the 16-year-old, the best Academy prospect in England, they tell us:

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05:56 PM

A switch to three at the back for Norwich

Which they used during pre-season and then curiously abandoned.

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05:48 PM

And nine for Norwich

🚨 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦 🚨

◾ City start with back three
◾ Nine changes from the weekend
◾ Hanley and Gilmour keep their places pic.twitter.com/EwQ6uz0PUB

— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) September 21, 2021

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05:46 PM

Nine changes for Liverpool

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 👊

This is how we line-up for tonight’s @Carabao_Cup tie against @NorwichCityFC!

Kaide Gordon and Conor Bradley make their senior debuts, @J_Gomez97 is captain 🔴

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 21, 2021

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05:30 PM

Good evening

Welcome to coverage of the third-round League/ Milk/ Littlewoods/ Rumbelows/ Coca-cola/ Worthington/ Carling/ Capital One/ EFL/ Carabao Cup tie from Carrow Road. Norwich City, twice winners, the last of them in 1985, take on Liverpool, eight-time winners, the last of them in 2012 during the second coming of Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish who had won it four times as a player but never before as a manager ... by virtue of Charlie Nicholas.

Norwich City, bottom of the Premier League table with five defeats from five, and Liverpool joint top of the PL with four wins and a draw from five games (don't give us any of that 'alphabetical order tomfoolery), have not met in this competition since 1982 when Mark Lawrenson and David Fairclough scored the goals in a 2-0 win in front of a paltry crowd at Anfield.

The Canaries beat Bournemouth 6-0 in a joyous romp in the second round, having rested a lot of their usual first XI, Liverpool earned a bye by dint of their European qualification, something the winners this year will also be able to do even if the reward for victory at Wembley next spring has now been downgraded to a place in the Conference League.

Todd Cantwell, Sam Byram, Christoph Zimmermann and Przemyslaw Placheta were all ruled out yesterday but Daniel Farke should be able to call on some of those who starred against Bournemouth including Bali Mumba and Christos Tzolis plus other squad players such as Milot Rashica, Pierre Melou, Bali Mumba, Dimitrios Giannoulis and Ben Gibson.

Liverpool, who gave Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino starts at this stage last year, when they beat Lincoln 7-2, are likely to do so gain and there could also be places in the XI for Curtis Jones, Nat Phillips and Caoimhín Kelleher.

Join us for the team news from 6.45pm and full coverage from kick-off an hour later.