Liverpool-Stoke semi-final goes to penalties

The Reds will face Stoke City in the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final having won the first leg 1-0, meaning that Liverpool are essentially 90 minutes away from a Wembley showcase final.

“It was a special game, I think a good game from my side against a side who are real hard to play [against]”, Klopp told Sky Sports.

The Liverpool manager, who led Borussia Dortmund to the 2013 Champions League final at Wembley, said: “Until now when I’ve met an Evertonian nobody has knocked me, nobody has kicked me, nothing has happened”.

That meant penalties and the game was on a knife-edge with the sides locked at 5-5 in a sudden-death penalty shoot-out before Allen stepped up after Marc Muniesa had missed for Stoke. I was behind the wall of my players so I had to watch it from there.

Fighting hard to hide his disappointment at losing out, Hughes said: “I think we will hopefully get the credit we deserve”. “It would be a cool thing”.

If they can turn the tie around, the Staffordshire outfit would be in a League Cup final for the first time since 1971-72, the season in which they won the competition to secure what is the only major trophy in their history.

“We defend usually in the right spaces, we play football in the right spaces, we create opportunities in the right spaces, we play good football in the final third…”

Instead, that honour goes to Liverpool, the most successful team in League Cup history with eight titles.

Liverpool are in seventh place in the Premier League table after Saturday’s 5-4 victory over Norwich City.

It seems to be one step forward, one step back for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp as he struggles to get the Anfield outfit free of the increasingly frustrating rash of injuries that has plagued the club since he arrived back in October.

The hosts’ only meaningful attempt in the first half saw Can unleash a powerful long-range strike that briefly had Jack Butland anxious before curling past the post. That’s 36 visits to Anfield without a win, a streak they could break with a positive score today.

The Stoke midfielder looked to be half a yard offside when he finished a sweeping counter-attack, but the linesman wasn’t interested in any of the Liverpool complaints. And Stoke nearly got its second when Marco van Ginkel struck a low shot against the post.