Team news and manager quotes ahead of the League Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Stoke at Anfield.
Liverpool have a slender one-goal advantage as they welcome
Stoke to Anfield in the second leg of their League Cup semi-final.
TEAM NEWS
Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren is back in contention ahead of Tuesday's League Cup semi-final against Stoke City at Anfield, but full back Nathaniel Clyne could miss the game due to a knee injury, manager Jurgen Klopp
said on Monday. Lovren has not played since injuring his hamstring in
the first leg of the semi-final on Jan. 5 -- which Liverpool won 1-0 --
but has returned to training with the first team. Clyne was injured in
Liverpool's 5-4 Premier League win against Norwich City on Saturday, meaning that Jon Flanagan could make his first start since the end of the 2013-14 season when he underwent two knee operations.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes will be without captain Ryan Shawcross. The defender came off in the first half of Saturday's 3-0 Barclays Premier League loss at Leicester.
MANAGER QUOTES
Jurgen Klopp: "It's [Liverpool's defending] not a problem we can
ignore. It's obvious. We are always working on our weaknesses. In
Norwich, we defended the first ball well but struggled then with the
second or third. It's not too late to learn. But now it's time to."
Mark Hughes: "It's a cup semi-final for goodness sake and if you
can't get up for that then there's something wrong somewhere. There's a
lot of goals being scored against them, but they have the ability of
scoring at the other end and so we have to be mindful of that. We go
there in good heart and it's about making sure what our focus should be
on Tuesday and if it is right we will go close."
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