Late Fightback at Bolton Keeps Fairytale Alive for Liverpool and Steven Gerrard

A stunning late strike from Philippe Coutinho rescued Liverpool and kept their FA Cup dreams alive, scraping past Championship side Bolton Wanderers, 2-1 in the fourth-round replay at the Macron Stadium.

Coutinho's last-minute winner added to Raheem Sterling's volleyed equaliser four minutes from time, cancelling out Eidur Gudjohnsen's penalty.

Having been knocked out of the League Cup at Chelsea in extra time last week, Brendan Rodgers will be happy to see his side remain in this competition—his best chance of silverware this season.

Winning a trophy in 2014/15 is an aim the boss outlined back in preseason, seeing it as the next step in his squad's development (as per The Daily Mail).

With Manchester City and Chelsea out of the competition, Rodgers must see this FA Cup as a huge opportunity and that showed with his team selection—making only two changes by resting both Lucas Leiva and Jordan Henderson, bringing Joe Allen and Steven Gerrard into midfield.

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Gerrard was making his 700th appearance for the club, becoming only the third player to do so. It's an incredible achievement.

The Liverpool captain, though, is no longer a marauding midfielder, no matter how many times Rodgers continues to make the same mistake by moving him into a regular midfield role as he did for this match.

The last time Liverpool lost a game in 90 minutes was the 3-0 defeat to Manchester United in mid-December, a game that saw Allen and Gerrard in midfield in a new-look 3-4-2-1 shape. The midfield that day was overrun, and at times it was against Bolton too.

Only once Jordan Henderson arrived from the bench and Emre Can moved up from defence did Liverpool gain control and composure in midfield.

Why Rodgers opted to return Gerrard to the midfield role, having used him since that Man United defeat in an attacking midfield role behind the forward, only he will know or understand.

A defeat here would have cost Liverpool and Gerrard the dream of winning the FA Cup on Gerrard's 35th birthday and likely his last game for the club (the Europa League final takes place after the FA Cup final).

Future

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What we saw here though wasn't about Gerrard, it was about life after Gerrard—with Emre Can, Coutinho and Sterling especially leading the side.

Can, the 21-year-old who could barely get into the side before Christmas, was particularly impressive in the latter stages, stepping up to the plate and driving the team, taking responsibility and, of course, providing an exquisite pass for Sterling's equaliser.

The German started at right centre-back, moved to sweeper at half-time, then right midfield, then into centre-midfield. He was the key man.

"

Can gets better every time I see him.Could be a big player in the future for us.Proper football brain too!!coutinho deserved that goal!

— John Aldridge (@Realaldo474) February 4, 2015"

Ahead of him, Coutinho and Sterling also didn't shy away from the pressure and continued to probe the breakthrough despite getting knocked around by Bolton's brute tactics, being given little protection from the referee.

Sterling showed the much-needed, but previously missing, composure to control his shot from Can's pass for the equaliser and claim his ninth goal of the season.

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Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of this match, Rodgers said (per The Guardian) of Coutinho: "If he can continue to improve, and there are areas where he can improve like his goalscoring, then he can get into that bracket of being world class."

The Brazilian marked his new contract by scoring just his third goal of the campaign, a stunning strike from outside of the box off the underside of the crossbar.

It was reward for both players who kept going on what had been a frustrating evening up until then.

The Reds scrape through but face another tricky trip in the fifth round where they'll play at Crystal Palace. They must banish of their last two trips to Selhurst Park to keep the dream alive for Gerrard's fairytale ending.