Article by Aurelian Botezatu – Published Tuesday, January 13, 2026, 09:30 / Updated Tuesday, January 13, 2026 09:34
Liverpool beat her on Barnsley 4-1 in the FA Cup, but the Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai (25 years old) had an evolution with lights and shadows.
Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring for Liverpool against the third league side with a spectacular finish (min. 9). But he ended up angering Liverpool fans and manager Arne Slot.
Dominik Szoboszlai “served” his opponent with a “heel”
The reason? An unforgivable blunder that brought the visitors back into the game. After Frimpong increased the score to 2-0 for “cormorants” (min. 36), the Hungarian midfielder tried a pass with his heel right in front of his own goal, to goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
The execution was poor, however, and the ball was intercepted by Phillips, who promptly put it into the net for 1-2. A gift, effectively, right before the break.
Liverpool managed to consolidate their victory only in the end, through the goals of Florian Wirtz (min. 84) and Hugo Ekitike (90+4), and the manager Arne Slot and the TV analysts promptly fined Szoboszlai.
“Szoboszlai's brain froze”
“That's never done! He would have tried that execution as a kid, when he was the best on the playground. Surely he won't make that mistake again,” commented former Cormorants player Steve McManaman on TNT.
Ex-Rangers Ally McCoist was left “gape” and commentator Darren Fletcher said Szoboszlai's “brain froze”. Manager Arne Slot was extremely nervous and announced that he would have a private discussion with the Hungarian international.
Arne Slot: “He shouldn't even do that in training”
“I don't think he should do that in an FA Cup or League Cup match, in a friendly or in training. It's a strange choice, but I also have my opinion on it and I prefer to keep it to myself and talk about it with Dominik personally,” the Dutch technician pointed out.
Even Barnsley manager Conor Hourihane criticized Szoboszlai, seeing his execution as arrogance: “He wouldn't do that in a Premier League game against Arsenal or Chelsea. I'm a bit disappointed about that.”
Szoboszlai? The Hungarian's reaction was as brief as possible: “In football it happens.”
