Aston Villa teenager Louie Barry could not hide his delight in scoring a goal in the FA Cup during the young Villains’ 4-1 defeat by Liverpool on Friday night.
Villa were forced to name a group of academy players after a coronavirus outbreak among their first team, and the youngsters did their club proud with a dogged display which saw them reach half-time level with a strong Liverpool side that included Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and captain Jordan Henderson.
Liverpool ran away with the game in the second half but Barry, 17, will always have his equaliser to remember, after he shrugged off the attentions of defender Rhys Williams before calmly finishing into the corner.
Barry told BT Sport: “I knew that I had it as soon as I saw it and it came out for me. I put the ball in the back of the net and it’s the proudest I’ve ever been of myself.
“My family were probably screaming at the TV when it hit the back of the net, and I’ve never been so proud. I happened so quickly and I was just happy to score – and hopefully many more.”
Barry, who began his footballing career in the West Brom academy before a brief spell at Barcelona, admitted he thought Villa might even have a chance of winning the game after his goal just before the break.
He added: “When I scored, I thought, ‘We might even have a chance here’. Obviously that didn’t turn out to be, but credit to ourselves and credit to the club.”
Jurgen Klopp admitted the third-round tie was a step into the unknown and said he was relieved to get through.
“It was a tricky one. I have never had this kind of challenge in my life when you have no idea who you are playing. All our preparations for the game went in the bin and we had to start again.
“We scored an early goal and then didn’t play quickly enough and didn’t move fast enough. These are football problems and we solved them with football in the second half.
“Academy players are good players. Last year we played here with our kids and they gave Villa a proper game as well. If you don’t play well you have problems, but in the second half we played like we should have done from the beginning.
“We trust the authorities. Our test results came back yesterday and everyone was negative. They did what they thought was right with their under-23s and everything is fine.”