Soccer-Liverpool through to FA Cup fifth round, Wolves win game marked by fan violence

Soccer Football – FA Cup – Fourth Round – Liverpool v Norwich City – Anfield, Liverpool, Britain – January 28, 2024 Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch celebrates scoring their fifth goal with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Conor Bradley REUTERS/Phil Noble

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Liverpool cruised into the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 5-2 rout of Championship Norwich City on Sunday, to kick off Juergen Klopp’s long goodbye at Anfield, while crowd trouble marred Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion.

Soccer Football – FA Cup – Fourth Round – Liverpool v Norwich City – Anfield, Liverpool, Britain – January 28, 2024 Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk scores their fourth goal past Norwich City’s George Long REUTERS/Phil Noble

Liverpool’s beloved manager announced on Friday that he would leave the Merseyside team at the end of this season, his ninth at the helm.

“I get it, it’s very emotional,” Klopp told the BBC. “I just have to make sure that I don’t get on that side of it. (And) in the games, we need to be warriors and not celebrate the old man on the side lines.”

Anfield’s faithful serenaded Klopp to the tune of The Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’, lustily singing: “I’m so glad that Juergen is a red. I’m so glad he delivered what he said.”

“First match after the news and we can get used to it,” Klopp said.

The eight-times FA Cup winners had goals from Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez, Dioga Jota, Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch.

Liverpool will next play either Watford or Southampton after that fourth-round game earlier on Sunday ended in a 1-1 draw thanks to a last-gasp goal by Southampton’s Stuart Armstrong to force a replay.

Soccer Football – FA Cup – Fourth Round – Liverpool v Norwich City – Anfield, Liverpool, Britain – January 28, 2024 Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp celebrates after the match REUTERS/Phil Noble

“It was a perfect game,” Jones told ITV. “There were loads of goals scored and we didn’t have any injuries.”

“Definitely (can use Klopp’s departure as motivation),” he added. “We had our goals at the start of the season and now the news is out, we’ll be giving it more.”

Ben Gibson and Borja Sainz scored for Norwich City, who are ninth in the Championship, 28 spots below Premier League leaders Liverpool in England’s football pyramid.

Soccer Football – FA Cup – Fourth Round – Liverpool v Norwich City – Anfield, Liverpool, Britain – January 28, 2024 Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk celebrates scoring their fourth goal with teammates REUTERS/Phil Noble

Wolves’ victory in their fourth-round match at West Brom was interrupted for nearly 40 minutes due to clashes involving the two sides’ supporters.

Soccer Football – FA Cup – Fourth Round – Liverpool v Norwich City – Anfield, Liverpool, Britain – January 28, 2024 Liverpool’s Conor Bradley in action with Norwich City’s Borja Sainz REUTERS/Phil Noble

Wolves were leading 2-0 when projectiles were hurled on to one end of the pitch in the 82nd minute, sparking a brawl in a corner at The Hawthorns.

Matheus Cunha and Pedro Neto scored for Wolves, whose manager Gary O’Neil called the disturbances “really disappointing”.

“Up until that point it was a good tie with good atmosphere,” O’Neil told ITV. “How people behave at football is really important and we need to look at that, make sure everyone is safe. When we came back out the atmosphere had gone, it was really sad to see.”

The delay prompted officials to push back the draw for the FA Cup fifth round — originally scheduled for just before the Liverpool-Norwich 1430 GMT kickoff — to halftime of that game.

(Reporting by Lori Ewing; editing by Clare Fallon and Toby Davis)