All-Merseyside final still possible after League Cup semi-final draw

“Stoke will want to be in this final as much as possible”. “They played a fantastic game”.

The Citizens defeated Hull City 4-1 to progress on Tuesday evening, but only truly found their rhythm in the final 10 minutes of the match, while Everton defeated Middlesbrough and Stoke City ousted Sheffield Wednesday.

The City side included a number of fresh faces from their league victory over Southampton on Saturday, but was still packed full of talent, including playmaker David Silva who was making his first start in nearly two months following injury. They’re top quality players, some of the best in the world.

Manchester City, who are 23/20 favourites to go the whole way, have been paired up with Everton for their next game while Liverpool, 6/4 to win the League Cup after being reinvigorated by Jurgen Klopp, meet Stoke.

“It’s in January, though, so we have to wait a bit”.

“We were on a great run before the Sunderland away game when we didn’t get the result we wanted”, the 32-year-old told talkSPORT.

City, meanwhile, have responded in style to back-to-back defeats to Liverpool and Juventus by comfortably beating Southampton and Hull City.

Eliaquim Mangala is banned, with Fernando (knock) and Jesus Navas (ankle) doubtful.

League leading Manchester City travel to the Britannia Stadium for the early kickoff on Saturday to face a strong Stoke City team. In the Premier League thus far this season he has scored seven times and assisted once from ten outings (one goal/assist every 84 minutes) and has even scored five times in five appearances against Stoke.

Klopp is aiming to mastermind Liverpool’s first trophy success since 2012 – when the Merseysiders last lifted the League Cup – and made light of the fact that all four balls used in the draw came out in ascending numerical order.