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The Reds just about squeaked past spirited League Two side Plymouth Argyle in a third round FA Cup replay to secure progression. Jürgen Klopp picked a near-identical XI to the side that drew 0-0 the first go round with Daniel Sturridge replacing Emre Can while the recovering Philippe Coutinho continued his journey back to match fitness to start over Sheyi Ojo. It ultimately ended happily at 1-0 for the visitors, as the youthful side labored at first to break down the same compact Pilgrim defense and then struggled at times with physical forward play after the goal.
...However, none of that matters because Papa Lucas scored a goal in a game. It was obviously a typically-glorious Lucas goal, with the Brazilian heading home from Coutinho’s 18th-minute corner in what ended up being the deciding moment of the match. Before we show it to you, however, here’s a clip of the last time the fleet-footed magician scored for the Reds:
Sorry about the video quality, it’s because it was filmed almost a decade ago.
The Merseyside cult hero was equally imperious this time around, beating his man at the near post to angle an unstoppable header into the back of the net as he is wont.
If you don’t mark Lucas Leiva, you will get burned (once every 100 games) pic.twitter.com/zIFZraOD0W
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dkurtenbach) January 18, 2017
The legend, of course, downplayed the momentous occasion post-match by paying respect to both his vanquished opponents and the teammates he had carried on his back to victory:
“I think they made it very difficult for us, fair play to them. They played fair and were on the ball all the time.
“They were very strong physically and we had a lot of young players but it was a good experience and the main thing was to get through to the next round and we did it.”
The 30-year-old wunderkind was a bit disbelieving that it had been so long since his last golazo, “It’s been that long?” he laughed. “I scored last week in training!”
Bet it was a beaut.
This will likely be Lucas’ final campaign with the club after nearly nine seasons of service, having fallen down the pecking order this term. However, a club servant such as Lucas knows better than to ride off into the sunset without giving Anfield something special to remember him by and he most certainly didn’t disappoint.