Liverpool beats Stoke on penalties, reaches League Cup final

Sky Sports pundit Carragher does not seem to have been deterred, though.

The former Inter Milan midfielder’s equaliser cancelled out Jordon Ibe’s victor in Liverpool’s 1-0 win at Stoke in the first leg at the Britannia Stadium earlier this month.

Klopp’s men advanced to the decider after a 6-5 penalty shoot-out victory over Stoke at Anfield. “I can’t fault any of them”.

“That was a special game”, said Klopp.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly nervous walking up there. I can’t spend 15 minutes on my knees” … People look at it like, you’ve got to come in, get 20 goals in your first season or you might be deemed a failure. Felt good, only watching the crowd.

Liverpool struggled to breakdown a resolute Stoke defence and after neither side could add to the scoring for the remainder of the match, it went to penalties. He was mobbed by his teammates.

“Even when we took him out he was saying “I could go on”. The prospect of an all Merseyside final looms large with the Reds crosstown rivals in Everton heading into the second leg at Goodison Park with a slender advantage over Manchester City.

“Until now I have not seen one penalty, to be honest – I was behind the wall my players built up [in front of me] so I will watch them at home”, he said.

“Wembley is a cool place to play football… but we go there to win”. Joe Allen stepped up and swept the ball into the top corner to send the Reds through to the League Cup final for a record 12th time.

Klopp will return to Wembley for the first time since leading Borussia Dortmund to the 2013 Champions League final. A 5-4, drama-filled win at Carrow Road against Norwich City in the Premier League, was followed by this win at home. The team has refined its playing style under Hughes to make it more pleasing on the eye, but this was the Stoke of the Tony Pulis years.

“There were 500 long balls into the box and we are all sitting in our warm chairs saying ‘come and do something.’ Peter Crouch was only on the pitch to disturb and as a team our reaction was really good”. The break at extra-time saw the both teams change sides, with Liverpool attacking their favourite Kop end.

Stoke’s goal could well have been ruled out, with replays showing Arnautovic was in an offside position before netting past Mignolet.

Liverpool began the second half brightly and nearly regained the aggregate lead in the opening minutes when Jordan Henderson found Roberto Firmino, whose low strike hit the outside of the post.