Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers showed their class

It was no easy victory for Liverpool FC against the Cherries but they had enough in their locker to see out a spirited Bournemouth team who had invention and determination, but couldn't quite manage a goal. I had thought that AFCB would need Brendan Rodgers to leave out three or so of his stars for the Cherries to have a good chance of progressing to the next round of the cup. But Rodgers chose instead to play all his top players, while still having a strong bench.

Lliverpool fans at Dean Court.

Considering Liverpool have a n important derby match against Everton on Tuesday night that was giving a lot of respect to the AFCB team and Eddie Howe. In hindsight it was the right thing for Rodgers to do, but it could have gone wrong if some of his players had picked up injuries. As it was only Skrtel suffered with a head injury and he went on to complete 90 minutes.

While Eddie Howe said he was not despondent, he may be slightly surprised that his team did not manage to score at home with the amount of chances they created. Converting those chances is something that they will hope to do on Tuesday night when they play Huddersfield Town. 

Brendan Rodgers speaks to Gabriele Clarke.

The game against Liverpool was very tactical and Liverpool got their goals at great times for them. Liverpool's early attack after 26 minutes and Sturridge's finish on 59 minutes were hammer blows. But AFCB's players kept going and ran themselves hard even though things did not work out quite how they would have liked. If they had just taken one of their opportunities early on it could have been a very different game with a noisy crowd behind the Cherries.

Still it was a special day for those who attended and for many more who will have been keen to watch the game on the TV. Liverpool were class throughout and that even extends to their manager who had some extremely kind and thoughtful words to say about Eddie Howe and his team. AFCB are headed in the right direction as an incisive, passing team. 

"Bournemouth are a very good side and I give credit to them first of all. It is a great idea to play the game... Eddie's similar to myself in terms of philosophy of football and it's not easy when you are a manager, especially a young manager and you stick your head out and get teams to play and to pass the ball but he certainly does that and you see the great work that he does with his staff on the training field," said Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool FC manager. "They were excellent."

When asked if the pitch was too nice and the way AFCB play was too nice to expect a giant killing, Rodgers replied. "When you have a team that want to play football, they are the most courageous players on the field. I don't think it's too nice. It's easy to coach a team to sit back and not ant the ball and defend and just wait for a hump up the pitch. The courage that the Bournemouth players showed today was fantastic. To get on the ball, the bravery of the players, the centre halves, to drop in a midfield player to get on it, to make the game, create chances and to create openings.. and they've got better at it as the season has gone on."

Listen to the Brendan Rodgers press conference video in full.

Brendan Rodgers applauds the way AFCB play their football.

Yesterday's photos around the ground are now uploaded at Match Day Gallery.