Ross Barkley said it was “a dream” to score against Liverpool as the midfielder helped Chelsea reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result meant Liverpool suffered their second successive defeat of this stellar season in a highly-competitive encounter at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liverpool made seven changes to the side that lost surprisingly at Watford on Saturday – the first reverse of their league campaign after 18 successive victories left them on the brink of a first title for 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chelsea, however, still had to overcome a Liverpool team containing the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Joe Gomez in a hard-fought fifth-round tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian gifted Willian Chelsea’s opener after 13 minutes when he hopelessly fumbled his 20-yard shot, but the European champions had chances of their own only to see recalled keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga present a formidable barrier with a string of saves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game was effectively settled after 64 minutes when former Everton midfielder and Toffees fan Barkley surged from inside his own half on a solo run before beating Adrian with an emphatic strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was brilliant, a massive result for the lads,” Barkley told BBC One. “We needed a top performance tonight at home after two disappointing results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Scoring against Liverpool is massive for me. As an Everton fan, it’s always a dream to score against them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hosts could have had more but Mason Mount rattled the crossbar with a 25-yard free-kick, before striker Olivier Giroud saw an effort brilliantly tipped on to the woodwork by Adrian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard will now have Wembley in his sights while Liverpool counterpart Jurgen Klopp returns to the task of wrapping up the Premier League title and overcoming a 1-0 deficit from the Champions League last-16 first leg against Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BBC Sport<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ross Barkley said it was “a dream” to score against Liverpool as the midfielder helped Chelsea reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. The result meant Liverpool suffered their second successive defeat of this stellar season in a highly-competitive encounter at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool made seven changes to the side that lost surprisingly at Watford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":14310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n