Plymouth boss Miron Muslic admitted to being “very emotional” after his side produced a giant-killing act to dump Liverpool out of the FA Cup, but insisted his celebrations would be restricted to “eating some nachos and drinking a Fanta.”
Ryan Hardie’s second-half penalty gave Plymouth, bottom of the Sky Bet Championship, a famous 1-0 win over the Premier League leaders as Home Park was left shaking to its foundations.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot named a shadow side for the fourth-round tie and most of his big-name players – including Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister – were back on Merseyside as the club’s quadruple hopes vanished on a wave of emotion in Devon.
“Normally I’m very good in my words and eloquent, but I’m a little bit speechless,” said Muslic, the Bosnian who succeeded the sacked Wayne Rooney in the Plymouth dugout last month.
“I’m very emotional because I realised the task and the opponent. It’s the biggest moment so far in my coaching career, no doubt, because it’s the FA Cup and Liverpool.
“But the biggest moment will be staying up [in the Championship]. This is my goal, this is what I have in my mind and my soul.
“It’s a day for Argyle, a day for Plymouth, a day for the Green Army. They deserve it and I want them to give it (celebrations) their all.
“I will go home and re-watch the game, eat some nachos and drink a Fanta. It’s very boring for me.”
Following a tight first half of few chances, Hardie converted from the spot after Harvey Elliott had handled when Darko Gyabi hooked the ball over his head.
Hardie struck a post soon after, but Plymouth had to withstand nine agonising minutes of stoppage time during which goalkeeper Conor Hazard made superb saves to deny Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez.
Muslic said: “Part of the game plan was to be structured, organised and brave.
“We knew we would have a lot of moments to defend and it was a huge task to keep them away from the goal.
“I watched them a couple of nights ago against Tottenham and the wave of Liverpool was unstoppable.
“[Liverpool made changes] but we had belief [to win] before because we wanted to maximise this game.
“I said to the players there was nothing to be afraid of, nothing to lose and everything to win.
“We played like this and we have added another part in the history of Argyle that nobody can take away from us.”
Liverpool’s loss was only their fourth of the season, the previous defeat also coming with a weakened side in a rather meaningless final Champions League league phase game against PSV Eindhoven.
Slot said: “The result is obvious, it is a big disappointment. There was not a lot to be happy about with the way we played.
“The only thing I am happy about is that the lads kept on fighting for 100 minutes and the best part of our game was the last 10 minutes.
“Credit to them, they had a good game plan, worked incredibly hard and got a penalty, which was a correct decision.
“The keeper made some good saves at the end, but we hardly created anything at all.
“They were 1-0 up and kept on fighting til the end.”
Plymouth 1-0 Liverpool
