Harvey Elliott caps return from injury by sealing win for Liverpool over Cardiff | FA Cup

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A rapturous reception greeted the double change, laced with excitement and relief. It was a new signing and a new beginning and if the Anfield public were happy simply to see Luis Díaz and Harvey Elliott on the pitch, they had further reasons to celebrate Jürgen Klopp’s substitutions. The January buy made an encouraging debut, the teenager made the ideal comeback and a day that threatened to be awkward for Liverpool started to assume a near-perfect look.

For Díaz, an assist 11 minutes into his Anfield career was perhaps all the more auspicious given Klopp’s indelible association with pressing. He harried a dozing Perry Ng out of possession to tee up Takumi Minamino for Liverpool’s second goal. For Elliott, their third was his first for the club and while it was taken beautifully – the winger taking a touch to control Andy Robertson’s cross and swivelling to dispatch a half-volley – perhaps his presence on the pitch was a greater achievement. It was 147 days since he dislocated his ankle against Leeds, when the immediate reaction was to fear for his future. A swift return had a stylish conclusion.

And yet, even before Díaz’s introduction, Liverpool had evidence of Klopp’s aptitude for forward thinking. The previous attacker they recruited with Porto on his CV had already underlined his catalytic qualities. Diogo Jota cushioned Liverpool’s passage into the last 16 just as he propelled them into the Carabao Cup final. He has ensured they navigated a month without Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané while progressing in the knockout competitions.

Jota ended Cardiff’s admirable resistance, a 15th goal of the season showing again that he has the spring to be a menace. He outjumped Mark McGuinness, a giant defender who is six inches taller than him, to glance in a header from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s free kick. Jota’s game is defined by elusiveness and irrepressibility in the penalty box; when he hooked a volley wide from a corner, he had contrived to be unmarked again.

If the first half, when Liverpool mustered a solitary shot on target, had seemed an advertisement for the introduction of Díaz, Jota was again their liveliest attacker. While Klopp has been accused of taking the FA Cup insufficiently seriously in previous years, this time the manager press-ganging youngsters into service in a makeshift side was Steve Morison. Injuries and January sales were a factor, while two of his recent signings were cup-tied.

It amounted to a daunting assignment for the teenagers Oliver Denham and Eli King, handed the maiden starts of their careers at Anfield. Denham could soon testify to its difficulties, when Jota baffled him with a deft turn before stinging the palms of Dillon Phillips with a crisp shot. Yet thereafter they were able to settle into the game. Liverpool had 82% of possession in the first half, but without their trademark intensity and with a wastefulness that was summed up when Alexander-Arnold’s volley went out for a throw. Naby Keïta was responsible for a couple of particularly wayward shots while Curtis Jones skied a shot over from Minamino’s cutback.

Liverpool debutant Luis Díaz in action. Photograph: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images

Cardiff, meanwhile, could argue the turning point came in the first minute of the second half. Mark Harris proved an elusive figure in attack and, while he appealed for a penalty when nudged in the back by Ibrahima Konaté, referee Andy Madley faced a stiffer decision when Will Vaulks released the forward with a pass from deep in his own half. Harris escaped behind Konaté and Caoimhin Kelleher took the role of sweeper-keeper to the extreme by bringing him down 45 yards from goal. Madley opted for a yellow card, a decision upheld by VAR. They were to pull a goal back, taken expertly by the substitute Ruben Colwill, but only after Elliott and Díaz made their mark.

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