Philippe Coutinho thumped home a second-half winner as Liverpool broke the resistance of Championship Blackburn Rovers to reach the FA Cup semi-finals with a gritty 1-0 replay victory.

Brendan Rodgers's side, who came into the game after back-to-back Premier League defeats that all but ended their hopes of a top-four finish, will face Aston Villa in the last four at Wembley.

They came out on top at Ewood Park having dominated possession but struggled to break down the hosts who got men behind the ball and restricted Liverpool to very few sights of goal.

The breakthrough came in the 70th minute when Coutinho exchanged passes with Jordan Henderson from a corner, drove into the box and drilled the ball low into the bottom corner.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.