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Liverpool overcame a valiant effort from Barnsley to book their place in the FA Cup fourth round with a 3-1 victory at Anfield.
The League One side battled the Premier League champions for much of the match but were undone by three brilliant Liverpool strikes, courtesy of Dominik Szoboszlai, Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz, with Hugo Ekitike scoring a fourth in injury time.
Barnsley led 2-1 at half-time after former Reds academy player Adam Phillips capitalized on a shocking error from Szoboszlai and was controversially denied a penalty after the break while still just a goal ahead when the Hungarian brought down the impressive Reyes Cleary, who was named man of the match.
But the Reds weathered the storm and eventually claimed victory to book a fourth round tie against Brighton.
Szoboszlai stuns and screams in lively first half
Conor Hourihane’s Ligue 1 almost got off to a dream start with less than 30 seconds on the clock when Davis Keilor-Dunn outjumped Joe Gomez and slammed a header against the post with Giorgi Mamardashvili well beaten.
Cleary then managed to get behind Virgil van Dijk but was unable to find Keilor-Dunn with the cross in what was a lively start for the underdogs.
But the Premier League champions dashed those early hopes when Szoboszlai collected the ball from Alexis Mac Alliser before firing a thunderbolt into the top corner from 25 yards.
The goal did not appear to deter the Tykes from their confident start, with Keillor-Dunn testing Van Dijk again with a fine run and shot that forced a save from Marmadashvilli.
But soon after Liverpool were 2-0 up, the visitors once again reminded of the quality they faced as Frimpong drove inside before firing an effort into the back of the net with his left foot.
But Barnsley reduced parity to just one goal again when former Liverpool academy player Phillips found the net, but it was more of an absolute horror error from goalscorer Szoboszlai.
The Hungarian carried the ball inside the box before bizarrely choosing to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper – completely mistaking to present the easiest opportunity for Phillips to exploit.
Another confident start from the visitors saw Cleary cause plenty of problems down the left, but Liverpool’s threat remained, with Rio Ngumoha seeing a teasing ball into the box begging before Van Dijk forced a superb reflex save from goalkeeper Murphy Cooper to tip it over the bar.
Cleary burst down the left again before being brought down by the still-involved Szoboszlai inside the area, but referee Farai Hallam opted not to award the penalty despite apparently pulling the Barnsley man’s shirt and making light contact with his leg – with an angry Hourihane receiving a yellow card for his protests on the sidelines.
Van Dijk then failed to find the corner with a fine header that crossed the goal from Cody Gakpo’s cross as the lively encounter continued.
Substitute Florian Wirtz should have ended the match by taking Szoboszlai’s cross, but the German was too nonchalant with his shot which sailed over the bar.
But Wirtz then made no mistake with an even harder finish to ultimately seal the victory after running onto a Hugo Ekitike flick to blast the ball into the top corner to continue the theme of Liverpool’s excellent strikes.
Barnsley continued to work hard, thanks in no small part to the excellent Cleary, but Liverpool made a break at the break in the final minutes as Ekitike slipped to fourth.
