And that’s it for tonight. Cheers for reading - Liverpool fans enjoy making plans for Wembley. The final is on February 28th and will be against either Everton or Manchester City, who play each other tomorrow night.
And there you go. Not a classic performance by Liverpool - in fact they were comfortably second best over the 120 minutes - but some superb penalties and one quite brilliant save from Simon Mignolet have put them through to Wembley.
Liverpool are through to the League Cup final!
GOAL! Liverpool 6-5 Stoke on penalties: Never doubted Allen for a second.
MISS! Liverpool 5-5 Stoke on penalties: A good penalty from Muniesa but Mignolet dives right into the left corner and tips it round the post. Joe Allen to win it for Liverpool!
GOAL! Liverpool 5-5 Stoke on penalties: Lucas ambles up and sends Butland the wrong way. He smashes the ball back into the net and gives the Stoke fans the big one. Lovely aggro.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-5 Stoke on penalties: Van Ginkel sticks another excellent one away, right in the corner.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-4 Stoke on penalties: And he does. Sudden death now.
GOAL! Liverpool 3-4 Stoke on penalties: Shaqiri slides it low to Mignolet’s right. Milner must score now or Stoke are through!
GOAL! Liverpool 3-3 Stoke on penalties: Firmino sends Butland the wrong way.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-3 Stoke on penalties: Affelay goes high to Mignolet’s right, he gets a big hand to it but it goes in.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-2 Stoke on penalties: Lovely from Benteke, giving an exaggerated stutter and waiting for Butland to go left, so he goes right.
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Stoke on penalties: Whelan stutters then puts it right, right, right in the corner. Great penalty.
MISS! Liverpool 1-1 Stoke on penalties: Can hits the post! We’re all-square after two pens each - one scored, one missed apiece.
MISS! Liverpool 1-1 Stoke on penalties: Crouch goes low to Mignolet’s right and he saves!
Updated
GOAL! Liverpool 1-1 Stoke on penalties: Lallana goes straight and high, and it goes just under the bar.
GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Stoke on penalties: Walters belts it to Mignolet’s left.
Updated
And so, here we are. Looks like the penalties will take place at the Anfield Road end (where the Stoke fans are), and Stoke will go first.
“In the impending lull between extra time and penalties,” writes Ben Watson (probably not that one), “can you tell your readers about my football club, Sporting Hackney’s deputation to Hackney council tomorrow night, requesting the council find land to build a new semi-pro football stadium in the borough. They don’t have one yet, which means we can’t get promoted, and in the borough that co-hosted and Olympics three and half years ago, that’s not a good show.”
Full-time (AET): Liverpool 0-1 Stoke (1-1 on aggregate)
PENALTIES IT IS!
Extra-time - 30 mins: Milner skims a cross over, it’s half-cleared to Moreno whose shot is blocked, and that will probably be that.
Extra-time - 28 mins: Liverpool haven’t really deserved to win this. They’ve probably had the majority of the ball but haven’t done enough with it. Benteke gets the ball on the right side of the box and shoots, but it’s blocked behind for a corner.
Extra-time - 27 mins: Ibe feeds Benteke, who tries a little flick over the top looking for Lallana, but he’d strayed into an offside position and thus loses interest in the whole affair.
Extra-time - 25 mins: Crouch flicks on and Van Ginkel gets the ball in the box, but his shot bounces up and is rather easily saved by Mignolet. Liverpool attack at the other end, Ibe cuts in from the right and slices a left-footed shot high into the Kop.
Extra-time - 24 mins: Pieters finds absolutely acres down the right side, running into the box and finds Crouch, but he can’t get a proper shot away.
Extra-time - 22 mins: Nothing is happening. Liverpool nearly had an attack there, but no. The most drama is on the sidelines, where Klopp’s blood pressure continues to rise, and Moreno isn’t even on his side of the pitch now.
Extra-time - 20 mins: Can tries to chip a pass into the box, but it’s headed clear. Still cagey. Affelay runs the ball out of the Stoke defence.
Extra-time 18 mins: All very cagey. Nobody wants to make a mistake. Which is precisely when someone will make a mistake.
Extra-time 16 mins: We’re away again. Who will prevail? Who will remain upright for the longest? Is the answer to those two questions the same team?
Change for Liverpool at ET HT - Flanagan is replaced by Jordan Ibe.
Half-time in extra-time: Liverpool 0-1 Stoke (1-1 on aggregate)
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Extra-time - 15 mins: The big man might be a bit tired.
Crouch set to play more minutes tonight than in his last six games combined.
— Chris Mayer (@chrismayerV1) January 26, 2016
Extra-time - 14 mins: Close! Crouch flicks on to Van Ginkel, who outmuscles Lucas and gets an effort on goal, but it hits the outside of the post. Looked like Mignolet got a touch on that, but the officials disagree and a goalkick is given.
Updated
Extra-time - 13 mins: “The two players booked for Liverpool are Flanagan and Allen. Are they trying to be funny?” chortles Roger Simpson.
Extra-time - 12 mins: Lucas goes through the back of Crouch and concedes a pointless free-kick on the touchline near halfway. Klopp screams at Moreno for some reason, who along with Walters gets a talking to by the ref. I know which one I’d prefer.
Extra-time - 10 mins: Everyone looks rather knackered now. Lallana is meekly bundled off the ball just outside the area. Walters and Moreno have a grumpy disagreement. Over-tired.
Extra-time - 8 mins: And indeed Adam has to go off, replaced by Marco van Ginkel.
Updated
Extra-time - 7 mins: Klopp might want to think about taking Flanagan off - he’s clearly knackered, and as much as anything it might get him sent off soon. And on cue, he goes through Adam with a tired, late challenge and is lucky not to get a second booking.
Extra-time - 6 mins: “Given you don’t get paid more for extra-time, do you have a penalty clause in your contract?” asks Mark Judd. “Have you thought of getting yourself an agent? That Jorge Mendes seems to be good at what he does.”
Anyone got his number?
Extra-time - 4 mins: Hardman Joe Allen is penalised for barging fellow Liverpool Transfer Folly Hall Of Famer Charlie Adam over. Ever since Allen grew his hair and beard he’s been acting like the bloke from the TV show Renegade. He’s out of control, but he gets results. Well, sometimes.
Extra-time - 2 mins: The big winners here are Crystal Palace and West Ham - the opponents of these two in the FA Cup at the weekend. Stoke win a corner on the left (they’re shooting towards the Kop in this half), Crouch heads wide.
Extra-time - 1 min: Liverpool on the attack straight away, and they have a shot on target, a Firmino effort that is poked straight at Butland.
And so the traditional post-90 minutes, pre-extra 30 rituals commence. An animated team talk by at least one manager, some players dousing themselves with water, others receiving healing massages. And just like that, we’re ready to go again.
Updated
Full-time: Liverpool 0-1 Stoke (1-1 on aggregate)
Peeeeeeeeeeep! Extra-time it is!
90 mins + 3: Liverpool bottoms twitch all over the shop as Stoke win a corner. Plenty of handbags in the box, but Crouch is penalised when the corner is eventually delivered for climbing on Can.
90 mins + 2: Liverpool get a corner and it’s cleared. Affelay dashes down the left, but his run is halted by a foul by Allen. His first involvement is to receive a yellow card.
90 mins: Can shoves Pieters over. In the context of the last seven or eight years, it’s quite weird to see a Liverpool side physically bully a Stoke one.
89 mins: Looks like we’re in for another 30 minutes. Checking my contract to see if I get more money for this. Turns out I do not.
87 mins: Flanagan goes into the book for a studs-up challenge on Affelay, who requires some treatment.
Updated
86 mins: Huge shout for hands in the Stoke box. Firmino tries a cross from the right side, it does hit Pieters on the arm but he was looking the other way. No dice.
85 mins: Sub for Liverpool, and interestingly Joe Allen is on for Toure. Presumably either Lucas or Can will drop into the back four.
83 mins: Firmino lines a shot up from about 30 yards out, but he never looked especially confident about that one and it goes way over the bar.
81 mins: A very strange bit of play as Milner dummies a pass from Flanagan on the right flank...but as he was about a yard from the line it didn’t exactly go to plan. Whatever that plan might’ve been.
79 mins: Liverpool pass the thing around slightly impotently for a little while, then work it back to Flanagan who crosses, but with far too much loop and Butland catches with some ease.
77 mins: Sub for Stoke - Arnautovic, who had been feeling his back in the last ten or so, is replaced by Xherdan Shaqiri.
76 mins: Chaos in the Stoke box. A cross comes into the area from the left, Benteke rises but can’t make contact and it falls to Flanagan, but he can’t get the ball from ‘neath his feet and he can’t get the shot away.
74 mins: Flanagan is lucky not to be booked after sticking his hip in the way of Arnautovic, conceding a free-kick from the left. It’s flung into the box, but doesn’t beat the first man and there was a foul in there somewhere anyway.
72 mins: Another cross into the Liverpool box is allowed to bounce, but this time the lino’s flag spares them too much embarrassment, Crouch having strayed.
71 mins: Change for Stoke - Bojan is off, and Liverpool folk hero Charlie Adam comes on.
70 mins: Lovely football by Liverpool, as Benteke spreads the ball to the left for Flanagan, but his low cross is too far in front of the lingering attackers.
68 mins: Arnautovic concedes a free-kick with a clumsy clamber on Lallana out on the right. Milner hoops the cross to the back stick where Sakho meets it, but was a bit unsighted and his header goes wide of the post.
Updated
66 mins: A couple of Liverpool corners come to nothing - unless you count the bizarre sight of Can trying to punch the ball, but missing, as ‘something’.
64 mins: Lallana cuts in from the left and shoots, but he drags it well wide of the near post. Good game this, now.
63 mins: Milner produces a nice flick to put Firmino running towards goal, but Johnson glides across to prevent him taking a shot. Good job too - Benteke was in all sorts of space had the Brazilian been able to pass to his right.
61 mins: There is a spot of chaos, but a nice flick by Arnautovic gives Walters a good chance on his left foot, but another terrific block by Sakho prevents Mignolet from having to do any work. His ungainly presence might create a fair few dangerous situations for Liverpool, but the big defender is pretty good at stopping them.
Updated
60 mins: Free-kick for Stoke out on the left after a handball is penalised. Big chance for some more chaos in the Liverpool box...
58 mins: Mignolet paws unconvincingly at a cross and flaps it behind. The corner is half-cleared and goes out to Johnson who shoots with power, but no direction.
Meanwhile, a change for Liverpool - Henderson goes off, and Christian Benteke is on. Interesting one - you assume Henderson must be injured and Klopp took that as a chance to make a tactical switch, because if it was just a formation change then there are three or four other players who will think themselves lucky to still be on the field.
Updated
57 mins: Liverpool employ a bit of defending that has every Sunday league coach in the country crying out in terror - they let it bounce in the area. Seriously though - they’re looking shaky here, and the game is entertainingly open.
55 mins: Big chance for Stoke. A ball over the top from Arnautovic looks for Walters, but Mignolet comes out to tackle the Stoke forward. The ball then finds its way back to Walters who catches all of a shot that was zooting towards goal, but Sakho gets his meaty frame in the way and blocks it.
54 mins: Pieters tries a long pass down the left looking for Arnautovic, but there was no way he was getting anywhere near that. Liverpool go up the other end and Moreno tries a shot that is blocked by a fleshy bit of Whelan. Known on 5-a-side pitches across the land as a ‘stinger’.
52 mins: Lucas tries to thread the needle with a pass through to Firmino, but that was optimistic in the extreme. Stoke attack at the other end, a pass finds Crouch on the edge of the box but he controls it with his hand.
50 mins:
Jon Walters! Shoulder barge 8/10 Look of disdain 9/10 Running away with so much purpose so that the ref doesn't even consider a pen 10/10
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) January 26, 2016
49 mins: Milner and Walters chase the ball down the right side of the box, the Stoke man shoulder-barges his opponent out of the way and the home fans cry foul. However, that was perfectly fair and nowt is given.
Updated
48 mins: Post! Another corner comes in, it’s shifted out to Firmino on the right side of the box and he shoots towards the near-post, which it hits and goes out. For reasons best known to himself the referee gives a corner, but nothing comes of that.
47 mins: Moreno tries a dummy from the free-kick, but when he eventually takes it it’s cleared at the near-post. The ball eventually finds its way back to Milner on the left, and his cross is deflected behind for a corner.
46 mins: We’re away again, and straight away Moreno barrels down the left chasing a pass from Can, but is felled by Walters and they have a free-kick in the corner.
And they’re back out for the second-half. No changes for either team.
“No idea what the Welsh Pirlo has to do to get a start,” frets Paul Ewart. “He’s been our best player recently and has scored two in his last three appearances. And by Christ, we could do with someone who can actually pass the ball tonight. Emre Can is starting to remind me of Jamie Redknapp. One good game in four; he flatters to deceive far too often. A little craven with his passing too. He needs to take more responsibility. Alberto Moreno is a complete wuckfit.”
Away from football, news comes in that Abe Vigoda has died. You’ll know him from playing Tessio in The Godfather, and ‘victim’ of an erroneous report in 1982 that he had died.
Ooof. The replays of that goal aren’t doing the lino any favours. About as easy a marginal offside decision as you’ll get, if that makes sense. That said, Stoke deserve to lead, just not in the manner that they do.
“Thanks for the Joy of Six link,” writes Simon McGrothe. “I was at the Oldham-West Ham game in 1990. So excited at the end that I crashed my dad’s car on the way home. Unfortunate association to an otherwise perfect day. Rob’s right in many ways about when Oldham’s zenith was: although we won the old Div 2 the next season followed by 3 years in the top flight, we had to sacrifice more and more of the joy and swagger to achieve this. That night may well have been the best we ever played. That West Ham team was very good, but we swept them aside like they were not there.”
And here are the goals, in all their artificial pitch glory.
Worth clarifying, for those not conversant in the away goals rule and how its applied in the League Cup, that it only applies after extra-time. So the only way this one will go to penalties is if it stays like this until the end of 120 minutes.
Half-time: Liverpool 0-1 Stoke (1-1 on aggregate)
Peeeeeeeeep.
Updated
GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Stoke (Arnautovic 45 +1)
Stoke lead! A great counter as Walters hooks the ball over to the right for Bojan, who slides it across to Arnautovic and he sticks it away with no fuss at all. However, the Stoke forward was about half a yard offside, so that shouldn’t have counted. It does though, and we’re all level.
Updated
45 mins: A minute of added time.
44 mins: A whiff of a counter on the cards for Liverpool, as the ball bounces awkwardly for Milner on the edge of the area. There’s a hint of handball about his control (read: he controlled it with his hand, unintentionally), but no matter as his pass to Lallana is intercepted and cleared by Butland.
43 mins: Liverpool commit the most pointless of footballing sins: the ‘throw-in in the corner that the thrower then immediately receives back, but is in an offside position.’ Firmino the offender.
42 mins: Liverpool play it short again, Moreno tries to cross it over but it bounces out to Henderson. He attempts a shot from way, way, way out, but it bounces rather meekly wide.
41 mins: No shots on target yet. Chop bloody chop chaps. Here’s a potential chance though, as Arnautovic shoves Flanagan over on the right, free-kick to Liverpool.
39 mins: Alberto Moreno tries a cross from the left, but gets, shall we say, a little too much on it. Like watching Aleksandr Kolarov try to swing one over, that.
38 mins: On the subject of songs, Marie Meyer writes: “I wish he were better because I love singing “He’s our keeper, our Belgian keeper, he’s Simon Mingolet. Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh.”
Sunderland fans will have you for breach of copyright for that one. In any case, you can still sing his name even if he ain’t that good. Five years!
36 mins: Henderson gives away a free-kick on the left and receives a ticking off from referee Moss. The ball is swung over and met by the hitherto anonymous Bojan, but it skims wide.
35 mins: Crouch lays the ball back to Afellay around 30 yards out and he tries an ambitious effort, but like many ambitious things it fails, sailing way over the bar. A lesson there, kids: don’t even try, because you might not succeed.
Anyway, here’s Cilla’s version of Work Is A Four-Letter Word, which feels slightly more appropriate given the participants.
34 mins: Can fancies a goal tonight. He cuts in from the left channel and works a shooting chance, which he takes but the ball holds its line rather than curling towards the top corner, and it goes wide.
Updated
32 mins: “Where’s your famous atmosphere?” sing the Archbishop of Banterburys in the Stoke end. Burn. The home fans mull this over for a bit, then respond with a ditty featuring a popular four-letter word.
31 mins: More triangles from Liverpool, but they’re limited to the ten yards either side of the halfway line. Henderson tries to break them free of this funk with a ball over the top for Lallana, but that’s too long.
29 mins: One to file under ‘Good Chant’: the Stoke fans singing Joselu’s name to the tune of ‘Vindaloo’. It’d be even better if he was on the pitch. Meanwhile, Lucas gives Affelay’s Achilles a kick, and he’s lucky not to be booked.
27 mins: Walters is down holding his foot, claiming a stamp somewhere or other, but replays suggest it was either unintentional from Lucas, or actually from his own teammate, Crouch. Which you’d assume would be unintentional too.
26 mins: A comically incompetent free-kick is taken after that foul, Milner squaring to Henderson - or rather to the bit of grass about five yards in front of Henderson, and a good position is wasted.
25 mins: Yellow card for Muniesa, and a deserved one too. Lallana plays in Milner down the left, he beats Muniesa but the Spaniard cynically legs him up as he dashes down the flank.
Updated
24 mins: Can has looked lively so far. He receives the ball under some pressure from Whelan around 25 yards from the Stoke goal, he shows some nifty footwork to escape that attention and create a shooting chance, but he skews the effort well wide.
22 mins: Chance! Pieters plays a stunning ball over the top into the left channel for Walters, who curved his run brilliantly from the right, to run onto and in behind the Liverpool defence. He measures the shot, but Sakho does just enough to put him off and the effort goes wide, across goal. Sakho may have left a little bit on Walters there too, and the Stoke man limps away.
Updated
21 mins: Still not a great deal by way of action to report. Lucas is allowed to wander through the Stoke midfield, but after the ball eventually finds its way out to Flanagan and Milner on the right, nothing much comes of it.
19 mins: Whelan is dispossessed in midfield, but Can and Firmino muck around with a potential attacking opportunity so much that it disappears.
17 mins: Firmino picks the ball up outside the area, shoots left-footed but that’s easily blocked.
Sounds like there’s been some trouble getting the away fans in at Anfield. Matthew Gallacher emails in: “Still hundreds of away fans outside ground not able to get in ground. Disgrace. Fans very agitated. Police not in control. Sky should have delayed kick off, but money rules, not fan safety.”
The away end is slowly filling up, but there’s still plenty of space there.
15 mins: Talking of corners, here’s Gokul Kannan who’s been on the emails: “Everybody is busy pointing out Liverpool’s poor defending of set pieces, especially corners. You know why we are bad? Did you see the corners Liverpool take? How many times have we scored from corners this season? So, when Liverpool practise corners in the training ground they, Sakho and co, never get to defend a proper corner. Think of it.”
14 mins: A shot! Affelay slips a neat pass to Walters just outside the area, and the Ireland forward tries a left-footed shot on the run, but it’s deflected wide for a corner. Said corner is defended with uncharacteristic competence, headed clear with some authority by Sakho at the near post.
Updated
12 mins: Emre Can picks the ball up right on the left touchline, then runs straight across the edge of the box and eventually makes it to the right side of the area, and is shepherded away from danger by Wollscheid.
10 mins: Liverpool win a corner on the left that James Milner skims into the box, but that was easily headed away.
8 mins: Arnautovic tries to get around the returning Flanagan on the Stoke left, but the right-back shows some strength to keep his opponent away from trouble and ultimately get the ball clear.
Updated
7 mins: Some pleasant triangles from both teams, but none that have resulted in anything quite as gaudy as an effort on goal, yet.
5 mins: Not much action so far. Adam Lallana skins Glen Johnson down the Liverpool left and curls a cross into the box, but Roberto Firmino isn’t exactly there for his aerial prowess and it’s easily cleared.
Updated
3 mins: Peter Crouch’s lengthy limbs make their first appearance, flapping all over Kolo Toure who briefly looks like a man with shampoo in his eyes trying to emerge from a shower, only to be caught up in the curtain.
1 min: Liverpool kick-off, going towards the Anfield Road End in the first-half. For those of you watching in black and white, the home side are in all red, while Stoke sport an all black kit with a green swash.
The players are out on the pitch, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ rings out, and Klopp looks rather adorably delighted with the atmosphere inside Anfield. The Kop certainly looks quite Europeany, with the flags and the banners and whatnot.
Pjotr van Rooijen continues the Marko/Zlatan comparisons: “To keep the comparisons going, they both played for Inter Milan, they both played in the Eredivisie, their last names both end in ‘vic’, and they both think very highly of themselves. Uncanny.”
“I’ve always said that Marko Arnautovic is the spitting image of Zlatan Ibrahimovic,” writes Ezra Finkelstein. “They both have tattooed arms, the distinctive look and hairstyle, represent weak football countries and have amazing skills.”
I’d be amazed if one of those tattoos doesn’t say ‘The Viennese Zlatan’. Sort of.
Yowch.
0 - Stoke have not won at Anfield in any competition since March 1959, going 36 visits without a victory (D5 L31). Challenge.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 26, 2016
Some pre-match reading? How about a Joy of Six on League Cup semi-finals, by Rob Smyth in 2010.
So Jon Flanagan is back, back, back for the first time in an age, while Adam Lallana comes into the Liverpool starting XI instead of Jordan Ibe, but other than that it’s the same team who played that bonkers game at Norwich. For Stoke, Ryan Shawcross’s back knack rules him out, while Mame Biram Diouf, Xherdan Shaqiri and Joselu all drop out, with Marco Arnautovic returning and a rare start for Peter Crouch up top. Quite an attacking Stoke side sent out by Mark Hughes - could be filled with thrills and spills, this one.
626 - Jon Flanagan is set to start his first game for Liverpool since May 2014 (v Newcastle), 626 days ago. Return.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 26, 2016
Team news
Liverpool
Mignolet; Flanagan, Toure, Sakho, Moreno; Lucas, Can, Henderson; Milner, Lallana; Firmino. Subs: Ward, Lovren, Benteke, Allen, Ibe, Teixeira, Smith.
Stoke City
Butland; Johnson, Wollscheid, Muniesa, Pieters; Whelan, Afellay; Walters, Krkic, Arnautovic; Crouch. Subs: Bardsley, Joselu, Wilson, van Ginkel, Adam, Shaqiri, Haugaard.
Referee: Jon Moss (West Riding)
Preamble
“Everything has changed here since last season,” Jürgen Klopp said this week, as if to thoroughly distance himself from Brendan Rodgers, and the two semi-finals that Liverpool lost in 2014/15. “If you want to solve problems, you can take the problem, talk about it, find solutions for it and in the end you can find yourself facing the same problem. The other option is you ignore it completely and say ‘It was only one time’ or, in last season’s case, two times. Or you prepare yourself for a semi-final and that’s what we want to do. Don’t think too much about the past. It doesn’t help to think about these things.”
Presumably, Klopp knows that this is the best chance Liverpool have of winning something this season. Even though he would essentially be ‘doing a Vialli’ (sort of), lifting a pot at Wembley would only reflect well on his first season at Anfield, particularly since the Champions League is looking like a rather optimistic aspiration, anything can happen in the FA Cup and who knows how many stuffs he gives about the Europa League. And so they take a 1-0 lead from the fist leg into this game, knowing they don’t exactly face a monumental task to reach the final.
And what of Stoke? They haven’t reached the League Cup final since 1972, when they won their first and to date only major trophy, beating Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley. George Eastham and Terry Conroy scored the goals, Peter Osgood scoring for Chelsea, and here’s what Hugh McIlvanney in the Observer had to say about the game:
The team they said could not win an argument at last took one of the major prizes of English football yesterday when Stoke City won the League Cup in a Wembley Stadium that seemed to contain half the people and all the spirit of the Potteries.
In a history of more than a hundred years Stoke had never before claimed any honoured more elevated than the championship of the Second Division. So this success - one which, with its multiplicity of replays, cost them nearly 20 hours of football - will depress no one.
Ah yes, those replays. Stoke’s journey to the final was a rather extended one, requiring two attempts to beat Oxford United in the third round, two replays to best Manchester United in the fourth, then another two to beat West Ham in the two-legged semi-final. Those games were also notable for Gordon Banks saving a penalty from Geoff Hurst, then in the final game Bobby Moore having to go in nets for West Ham after regular keeper Bobby Ferguson was injured. Moore himself saved a penalty, but the rebound was scored and Stoke finally won, 3-2.
Back in the slightly more recent past, these two teams were involved in games that served up 12 goals between them at the weekend, and while Stoke were responsible for precisely zero of those goals (and the worst free-kick you’ll ever see), it’s still pretty much a guarantee of excitement tonight, right? Right?
We’ll see. Kick-off in a bit, teams for you shortly.
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT
Hello. Nick will be here shortly as Liverpool look to get over their semi-final pain from last season’s Cup competitions. Under Brendan Rodgers, they lost to Chelsea in this competition, and to Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa in the FA Cup. Here’s what current boss Jürgen Klopp has had to say before the game:
“Last year I don’t know why but some things went wrong in the semi-finals. The only thing that stays in the mind is that we lost. We should be fully focused on this game. That’s the only way to win it. This is a different team, a different situation, a different manager and different opponents. It wasn’t Stoke last season, it was Chelsea. It’s different and we don’t need to think about that.”
Victory would represent an even bigger milestone for Stoke, who haven’t reached the League Cup final since winning the thing in 1972. Here are Mark Hughes’ pre-game musings:
“It has been 40-odd years and we remind the players of that because this is an opportunity to make your mark in the game. When that presents itself, you really have to grasp it. It is an opportunity we are not going to allow to pass by lightly. We are going to give it everything. It is a chance for everybody involved here to achieve something that hasn’t been achieved for many years.”
