Full-time: Liverpool 2-0 Leeds
That’s your lot! Liverpool head into the last four of the EFL Cup thanks to goals from Divock Origi and Ben Woodburn. Thanks for reading. Bye.
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90 min+2: Doukara bullies Lucas in the Liverpool area, only to wallop miles over the bar.
90 min+1: Booked for dissent a moment ago, Origi walks off and Marko Grujic replaces him.
90 min: There will be three added minutes.
88 min: In the other quarter-final taking place, by the way, it remains Hull 0-0 Newcastle.
87 min: Taylor crosses from the left, Wood heads straight at Mignolet.
84 min: Sacko plays a neat one-two with Doukara and runs through on goal, only to blaze high and wide. Leeds have played well, but they’ve lacked composure in front of goal.
83 min: Wood smashes the ball into the Liverpool net. But his joy is shortlived. The flag’s up for offside.
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GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Leeds (Woodburn, 81 min)
Playing with a swagger now, Liverpool attack down the right, Origi leading the charge. He plays it to Mane, who cuts Leeds open with a superb backheel back to the Belgian. Origi knocks it inside to Wijnaldum, who unselfishly tees up Ben Woodburn, who’s all alone six yards out. The 17-year-old composes himself. Then, with the Kop baying, he lashes the ball high into the net to score his first Liverpool goal and put his team into the last four. What a moment for the youngster!
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80 min: Origi has hobbled back on. James Milner’s services aren’t required yet.
78 min: The hero a minute ago, Origi has gone down with an injury. It’s the last thing Liverpool need after losing Coutinho on Saturday.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Leeds (Origi, 76 min)
The highly promising Alexander-Arnold whips a devilish, bouncing, Beckham-esque cross in from the right, causing all sorts of problems for the Leeds defence. Silvestri hasn’t a clue how to deal with it, so he decides to stay on his line and hope for the best. Origi’s isn’t going to stand around and watch, though. He gambles, throwing himself at the ball and poking it past the unconvincing Leeds goalkeeper with his studs to give Liverpool the lead!
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72 min: Out of nowhere, Liverpool open Leeds up, Mane flicking a glorious pass through to Wijnaldum on the right. He’s eight yards out. He slides his shot across Silvestri and towards the far corner and it looks a certain goal, only for the ball to hit the base of the post and bounce out. Mane tries to force in the rebound, but Leeds throw bodies in the way. The scare for the visitors ends with Woodburn slicing a shot out for a throw.
69 min: Liverpool mount their first coherent attack for as long as anyone can remember. Origi’s cross is headed behind for a corner by Ayling, but nothing comes from it. Are we heading for extra-time?
67 min: Ben Woodburn, who’s only 17, replaces the injured Kevin Stewart.
66 min: Stewart’s injury means that Liverpool are down to 10 men for the time being and they’re all over the place at the moment. Vieira pounces on a mistake in the middle and finds Roofe in space on the right, but Mignolet saves his low drive and holds it at the second attempt. This game is there to be won for Leeds.
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65 min: The lively Roofe twist and turns and wins a corner off Klavan on the right. The visitors look the likelier side at the moment. From Taylor’s corner, Bartley rises and heads wide.
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63 min: Acclaimed novelist Steve Bruce is in the stands tonight. There’s a stoppage in play as Stewart receives treatment for a head injury.
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62 min: Leeds make their final change, Chris Wood on for Stuart Dallas. Garry Monk is going for it.
61 min: Can finds Moreno on the overlap. The Spaniard’s cross is pish. Moments later, Wijnaldum goes down in the area. Nothing doing.
59 min: Lucas steps in assertively to win possession before surging forward. He finds Can on the edge of the area. Silvestri easily saves his deflected effort.
56 min: Doukara picks up a booking after scything down Stewart. “This game cries out for a top class striker: if only Leeds legend Robbie Fowler were available,” says Paul Griffin.
55 min: Liverpool have been asleep since half-time. How long before Klopp makes a change?
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53 min: Sacko and Wijnaldum chase after a long ball down the right, the Liverpool man getting there first and knocking a shaky backpass to Mignolet, who has to scamper quickly to make sure calamity doesn’t ensue. Liverpool try to play their way out of trouble and they do so impressively at first, Alexander-Arnold niftily turning away from Roofe. But then Stewart carelessly gives it away. The ball’s worked to Roofe on the left, 20 yards out. He opens up his body and aims for the far corner with a curling effort that beats Mingolet, hits the inside of the post and bounces to safety!
51 min: Moreno decides to show Origi how it’s done, shooting from 25 yards. The ball dribbles miserably wide. I’ve always wondered how the Liverpool doctors managed to miss his lobotomy when he had his medical.
50 min: Can does better this time, sliding a cute pass through to Mane, who flicks it quickly to Origi, who wants too long to shoot. Instead of hitting it, he tries to walk it in and he’s tackled.
48 min: Can bustles down the left and handily chips the ball to no one.
46 min: Off we go again. Leeds have made a second change. Luke Ayling has replaced Liam Cooper in central defence.
In the night’s other quarter-final, it’s Hull 0-0 Newcastle.
Half-time: Liverpool 0-0 Leeds
Leeds will take this. There’s not been much in it.
44 min: Sacko brilliantly nutmegs Stewart in the middle. Then he runs into four Liverpool defenders.
41 min: 25 yards from goal, Phillips catches a loose ball well. It hits Lucas and spins off for a Leeds corner. Taylor’s delivery isn’t great, though.
38 min: Ejaria almost combines with Origi in the Leeds area, but Cooper intervenes commandingly and Leeds break. Roofe’s found in space on the left. The flag goes up for offside. Roofe was in his own half.
34 min: Mane finds rare space on the right of the area, but his cross is disappointing.
33 min: A throw to Leeds on the left. The ball reaches Phillips, who knocks it back to Bartley, who decides to leave it to his goalkeeper, who decides to leave it to Bartley, who decides to leave it to his goalkeeper, who decides to leave it to Bartley, and so on and so forth, until Can nips in between Bartley and Silvestri, both of whom are mightily relieved to see the German’s prod roll past the right post. Pure farce.
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31 min: The corner produces the square root of zilch.
30 min: That Wijnaldum chance aside, Liverpool haven’t created much. There’s something in this game for Leeds if they hold their nerve. They have just won a corner, fortunately, Doukara somehow not penalised for a barge on Moreno, who’s highly amused at Dre Marriner’s decision.
28 min: Kalvin Phillips replaces the stricken Eunan O’Kane for Leeds.
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27 min: Eunan O’Kane is down with an injury of some sort. His evening might be over.
25 min: Taylor somehow bundles through a string of lily-livered challenges on the right, beating one, two, three Liverpool defenders and reaching the byline. His low cross is blocked behind for a corner, though. Dallas swings it in from the left and Simon Mignolet makes a right Simon Mignolet of it, coming for the cross and flapping with all the certainty of Simon Mignolet. The ball drops to Vieira on the right, but his shot is hacked clear. Simon Mignolet, though.
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24 min: Dallas hoicks an up and under into the area from the right. Alexander-Arnold heads it away for a throw.
23 min: Liverpool have started to dominate possession. Leeds have been pinned back for a while.
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21 min: Alexander-Arnold whips in a free-kick from the right. It’s headed away. He has another go. It’s headed away. “Nostalgia ain’t always what it used to be, but I started supporting Liverpool for the 1965 FA Cup Final,” says Graham Lees. “Shankly vs. Revie. Lawrence, Lawler, Byrne, Strong, Yeats, Stevenson, Callaghan, Hunt, St. John, Smith, Thompson with Smith playing as MF10 versus the more international (Irishman and South African) Sprake, Reaney, Bell, Bremner, Charlton J, Hunter, Giles, Storrie, Peacock, Collins, Johanneson. 2-1 with Hunt, Bremner and St. John all scoring in extra time. Them were days, them were.”
18 min: Leeds fans are reminiscing about Dominic Matteo doing a goal in the San Siro.
16 min: Klavan has a bet with himself that he can hit the corner flag with a shot from 30 yards. Nearly. Keep trying.
15 min: A lull.
13 min: Liverpool can’t do anything with the corner.
12 min: The pace of the game shows no sign of slowing down. Now Ejaria pops up on the right, spies Wijnaldum in the area and finds him with a clever poked pass with his right foot. Wijnaldum takes it on the bounce, using his instep to guide the ball towards the left corner, drawing a fine save from Silvestri, who pushes it behind for a corner..
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11 min: This is pleasingly end to end at the moment, Leeds breaking and Roofe testing Mignolet with a firm drive from 25 yards. The Liverpool goalkeeper saves.
9 min: Liverpool string a few threatening passes for the first time. Mane tries to beat a man on the edge of the area, skips past him and is sent flying by fresh air. Andre Marriner decides not to book him, fearful that Jurgen Klopp will committ GBH on a water bottle presumably, and Liverpool continue to press. Ejaria wins a corner on the right, but Leeds survive.
8 min: A unifying chant spreads around Anfield: “Stand up if you hate Man U!”
7 min: “As a Leeds fan - that is to say as someone who expects pain rather than trusts to hope - it’s hard to escape the feeling that Liverpool have only bothered to start Mane this game so that Premier League scouts can decide once and for all whether or not Charlie Taylor’s worth stealing this summer,” says Michael Jenkins.
Is he as good as Sam Byram?
5 min: That chance suggests Leeds have come here to play. They’re looking bright in these early stages, their confidence suggestive of a team that feels it can take advantage of Liverpool’s changes.
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3 min: Stuart Dallas holds off a challenge in midfield, looks up and spots Sacko’s run inside from the right, picking him out with a glorious pass over the top that completely catches out Liverpool’s offside trap. The flag stays down and Sacko’s through on goal! Moreno hurtles back, but he’s not quick enough and he’s relieved to see Mignolet make a fine save with his legs, Sacko unable to slip the ball underneath Liverpool’s goalkeeper. What a chance that was for Leeds! They really should be ahead. Nothing comes from the resulting corner.
2 min: There’s a cracking atmosphere inside Anfield, with the Leeds fans making plenty of noise. This is a good test of nerve for Liverpool’s young players.
And we’re off! Leeds, kicking from left to right in the first half, get the game underway. They’re all in white, Liverpool are all in red.
Before kick-off, a minute’s silence in memory of the 75 victims of the Colombia plane crash. Anfield observes it impeccably.
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Here come on the teams! The Leeds fans are making themselves heard. They’re “marching on together”. But where to? The semi-finals, they’ll hope, but Liverpool are likely to have other ideas despite resting a few big players.
“That Leeds line up made me chuckle,” says Bayu Wichmann. “Reminds me of player naming on football games of yore when the developers obviously didn’t have the licenses to use real names, resulting in such sterling talents as Harry O’Kane, Mikael Silvestri or Mamadou Sacko. How the once-mighty Leeds have fallen – recruiting players from Fifa ‘07. P.S. You’re appalling at tennis.”
The last time Leeds were at Anfield, for a 3-1 defeat back in October 2003, their starting 11 featured Zoumana Camara, Salomon Olembe and Seth Johnson. Lamine Sakho came off the bench. Roque Junior must have been bad if he couldn’t get into that side; he was an unused substitute. James Milner also started that day. Any word on what he’s up to now?
@JacobSteinberg "Tony Yeboah’s thunderbolt in 1994" - make that 1995, and it's well worth another look https://t.co/P56t9Di1Dl
— Chris Martin (@bluechrism) November 29, 2016
The teams!
Liverpool: Mignolet; Alexander-Arnold, Klavan, Lucas, Moreno; Stewart, Ejaria; Wijnaldum Can, Mane; Origi. Subs: Karius, Lovren, Clyne, Henderson, Milner, Woodburn, Grujic.
Leeds: Martyn; Mills, Woodgate, Ferdinand, Harte; Bowyer, Dacourt, Bakke, Kewell; Viduka, Smith Silvestri; Berardi, Cooper, Bartley, Taylor; Vieira, O’Kane; Sacko, Dallas, Roofe; Doukara. Subs: Green, Ayling, Grimes, Phillips, Mowatt, Wood, Antonsson.
Referee: Andre Marriner.
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Preamble
Hello. This is one of English football’s great fixtures. Think of games between Liverpool and Leeds and you think of Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner coming to blows at Wembley in 1974; Gary Sprake chucking the ball into his own net in front of the Kop; Tony Yeboah’s thunderbolt in 1995, the ball satisfyingly cracking in off the underside of the bar; Mark Viduka’s quadruple at Elland Road in 2000; Michael Owen and Emile Heskey leading Liverpool’s revenge the following season; David Ngog’s winner for Liverpool the last time these two sides met.
Fine, maybe that last one’s slipped your mind. But it does, of course, remind us that things aren’t what they were. Liverpool had David Ngog up front, but Leeds still couldn’t beat them. How the mighty fall, eh? Isn’t it funny to think that Leeds were in the Champions League 16 years ago? Doesn’t it make you think? Doesn’t it make you contemplate life? Member when Leeds had Rio Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate and Harry Kewell and Lee Bowyer and Robbie Keane and Seth Johnson and Negotiating’s Peter Ridsdale and a state of the art goldfish bowl? Sorry, Leeds fans, I probably didn’t have to mention the goldfish bowl.
Still, things are looking up for the first time in a long while. Leeds have gone around 47 minutes without doing something absurd, which is an achievement by their standards, and Garry “Gary” Monk has led them into the Championship play-off places. A return to the top flight is on the cards at last and they’ve got an outside chance of silverware too. Leeds will be massive underdogs at Anfield this evening, but Liverpool will know that they’ve caused a couple of big cup upsets in recent years.
Kick-off: 7.45pm (BST).
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