League Cup, semi-final, second leg. Liverpool 0 Stoke City 1 (Arnautovic 45). Agg 1-1 after extra time. Liverpool win 6-5 on penalties.
Liverpool set up a League Cup Wembley final date with either Manchester City or Everton on 28 February, after inching past Stoke City 6-5 on penalties in the semi-final second leg at Anfield.
Joe Allen scored the decisive spot-kick, after Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet
had saved two Stoke penalties in the shoot-out after the two sides
could not be separated over 210 minutes of football over the two legs.
Stoke City won the tie 1-0, their first win at Anfield in all
competitions since March 1959, but it was not enough to send Mark Hughes'
team to Wembley with the match ending 1-1 on aggregate following
Liverpool's 1-0 victory in the first leg at the Britannia Stadium three
weeks ago.
Marko Arnautovic netted the only goal of the game in first-half injury time with a sharp finish from Bojan's
cross, although the Austrian may have been marginally offside as he
drilled the ball past Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
But, in a poor match littered with mistakes, neither side was
able to kill off the game until Allen held his nerve in the shoot-out
following Marc Muniesa's miss.
Klopp,
who has never lost a semi-final as a manager, now gets the chance to
win a trophy in his first season as Liverpool boss following his
appointment as successor to Brendan Rodgers in October.
KEY MOMENTS
23' – CHANCE!
Walters chases down a long ball down the centre from Pieters, gets in front of Moreno but squirts his shot just wide of Mignolet's far post.
35' – CHANCE! : Arnautovic holds off Flanagan down the right and finds Crouch, who tees up Afellay but the Dutchman's shot is well over Mignolet's crossbar.
45 +1' - GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Stoke City. Agg 1-1. Arnautovic sweeps home Bojan's cross from the right, with Flanagan not tracking the Austrian's run into the centre.
68' – CHANCE!
Sakho has a free header at the far post but directs the ball wide of Butland's goal.
91' – CHANCE!
Firmino has a chance from Benteke's lay-off, but the Brazilian's effort is straight at Butland.
104' - HITS THE POST! Van Ginkel hits the outside of the post from the right channel following Crouch's flick-on from Pieters' crossfield pass.
KEY STATS
The win in 90 minutes was Stoke's first victory over Liverpool
in seven attempts in the League Cup. They have drawn one and lost the
other five.
The defeat is the first Liverpool have suffered in a League Cup semi-final leg at Anfield in 16 matches. (W8 D7).
It is the first time Stoke have failed to progress from the
semi-finals of the League Cup. The Potters reached the final in the
1963-64 and 1971-72 campaigns.
Liverpool went on to win the League Cup on the previous three occasions they met Stoke in competition.
TALKING POINT: Was that Jordan Henderson's worst performance for Liverpool?
Liverpool, 1-0 up from the first leg, tried to draw Stoke out to
chase the game and hope to catch Mark Hughes' side on the
counter-attack. Such a gameplan requires quick passing and movement on
the break, but the England international kept stalling the attacks with a
series of poor passes.
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce
once famously shouted 'What do you actually do?” at Henderson following
a poor first-half showing for the Black Cats. You do wonder what Klopp
said to his captain when he eventually hauled him off after 57 minutes
following this stinker of a performance.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Jon Walters (Stoke City)
The Ireland
international was a constant irritant to Alberto Moreno down the
Liverpool left, with a non-stop muscular performance that unnerved the
Liverpool defender.
The Liverpool-born Stoke midfielder was unlucky not to break the
deadlock midway through the first half after a fine angled run onto
Erik Pieters' long ball, and his all-action display deserved better than
semi-final heartache.
PLAYER RATINGS
Liverpool: Mignolet 7, Flanagan 6, Toure 7, Sakho 7, Moreno 6, Lucas 6, Can 6, Henderson 4, Milner 6, Lallana 5, Firmino 5. Subs: Benteke 7, Allen 6, Ibe 6.
Stoke City: Butland 7, Johnson 7, Wollscheid 8, Muniesa 7, Pieters 7, Whelan 6, Afellay 6, Bojan 7, Arnautovic 7, Crouch 6. Walters 8. Subs: Adam 6, Shaqiri 7, Van Ginkel 7
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