There we go then - a potential Merseyside derby in the final. Tasty. Good night all.
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2. Stoke City v Liverpool
1. Everton v Manchester City
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Andy Hinchcliffe is doing the draw, which is taking its sweet time.
Here it comes! Apparently.
When I say quick ad break ... I mean the opposite.
Right, the draw is coming up shortly apparently. Just time for a quick ad break in between.
In the meantime, Koeman is in front of Sky Man. “It was a great start but if you make the defensive mistakes we made in the first half and you’re up against Liverpool’s offence, then you can lose”. He takes the blame for changing the shape of the team in the second half, but he looks really, really annoyed. “The whole team performance, defensively, was not good.”
Get on with the draw! Here are the numbers, for what they worth, which is basically nothing.
1. Everton
2. Manchester City
3. Stoke
4. Liverpool
No update on who has nicked the match ball from Origi. Investigations currently ongoing.
Adam Lallana is in front of Sky Man and, more or less, he says this: we started sloppily and they scored a great goal. But Sturridge showed exactly what he was about. Sturridge’s first goal was key - we want him fit and playing because he’s going to contribute to our season massively.
Sky Man doesn’t ask him anything about the fact he was booed throughout. Odd.
Stay tuned, I’ll bring you the draw for the semi-finals here in just a tick.
Well, a massive shock for Southampton after such a dominant opening. Liverpool were patchy at the start, very patchy, but were dragged back into the match impressively by the returning Sturridge - who was excellent - before Origi ran away with the match. The only issue is that someone has nicked the match ball, so he doesn’t get to walk off the pitch with it.
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Peep peep!
That’s it, Southampton’s biggest defeat at St Mary’s. Meanwhile, interestingly, Liverpool were the last side to concede six in a League Cup quarter-final at home - to Arsenal in 2007.
90 min+1: Can outpaces much of the Southampton defence, clunks a shot at Stekelenburg, who spills it, but the home side escape being hit for seven.
“Could this be the moment that Southampton, like Daedalus, finally flew to close to the sun? With Wanyama, Pelle, and Mane likely to try and move on soon, will Koeman choose to fight through another regeneration of the squad?” asks Dan Schulwolf. “Given the acumen of their backroom set up and scouting apparatus I doubt the consequences of future departures will be too drastic, but it is fun to speculate, especially when it involves invoking Greek mythology. Can we now say that Klopp is Zeus and Sturridge is but one of his gegenpressing lightning bolts?” I’ll be honest, most of this went over my head.
90 min: This is quite something from Liverpool - this is hardly a weakened League Cup Southampton side, this is as close to a first team as Koeman could name with just Caulker the only non-regular starter.
88 min: Liverpool swagger forward again, this time to no avail.
@tombry Is that a perfect hat trick??
— Mark Williams (@TheRealMarkWNo7) December 2, 2015
I think so yes, even if the first one was reasonably inadvertent.
GOAL! Southampton 1-6 Liverpool (Origi, 85)
Smith sends in a wonderful cross from the left wing, putting the ball on a plate for Origi who heads home for what should be his hat-trick from a couple of yards. Klopp looks utterly bewildered on the sidelines.
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85 min: Liverpool work a few triangles up the left wing, then work the ball across the pitch, before trying to work the ball into the box from the right. It’s a lot of work, essentially. Origi rounds off all that work by thumping a shot at goal from distance which deflects well wide.
83 min: Southampton get the bit between their teeth for a minute. Bertrand races forward, finds Mane, and there’s a fair old free-for-all in the box until Tadic eventually clips a ball back. Long has a couple of swipes at it, before eventually sending a shot wide of the goal.
81 min: “As well as the goalscorers have played, am I right in saying that Allen has been the outstanding individual in this match and the favorite for man of the match?” asks Ricky Gill. He does have a lovely pass on him, I will say that.
80 min: Ibe gets quite of lot of Van Dijk’s weight on the back of his heel and goes down with a grimace. He’ll survive. Origi - who has really come alive since a) Sturridge going off and b) scoring, comes short to receive the free kick. From it Liverpool attack but the substitute Smith cannot quite get on the end of a cross raked into the box.
77 min: Alberto Moreno is going to trot off to be replaced by Brad Smith who is making his second Liverpool appearance. Southampton’s Steven Davis is coming off and, erm, Oriel Romeu is coming on to inspire his side into scoring four goals in 13 minutes.
75 min: If scoring just before half time is supposed to be the best time to score, is scoring in the first minute about the worst time to score. Southampton were so dominant for 20 minutes. They could not possibly have believed this would happen. Which is probably the problem.
GOAL! Southampton 1-5 Liverpool (Ibe, 72)
I was just typing that Liverpool are playing with outrageous swagger, when Moreno struts down the left, clips a cross over the penalty area to find Ibe on the D, and the substitute hurtles into the box and smacks the ball efficiently into the back of the net.
Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters
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70 min: Tell you what, good as the Liverpool goals have been, they’ve been made by some lovely assists too - well three of them because perhaps calling Moreno’s exocet an assist is putting things a bit far.
GOAL! Southampton 1-4 Liverpool (Origi, 68)
His first goal for Liverpool may not have been much but his second ... wow. Allen finds Ibe, who sends a beautiful slide rule ball into the box and Origi hits it from 20 yards right into the top of the net. Ooof!
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65 min: Can, Lucas and Mane tangle outside the Liverpool box, with the result being that Southampton have a free kick. A yellow card is shown, I think to Can, who nipped the back of Mane’s heel. That’ll mean a suspension for him, and he’ll miss the Newcastle match. Van Dijk hits the free kick, and he hits it straight into the wall.
64 min: Tadic twists and turns down the left wing, eventually finding the space to get a cross in. Long gets his head to the ball, but cannot get the power onto it he needs.
63 min: There are wild howls for a Liverpool hand ball outside the box, wild largely because Lovren is the man who is deemed to have committed it. Nothing given. Ward-Prowse and Long are coming on. Clasie and Cedric are heading off to a big warm coat on the benches.
“That Civil War analogy: Given that Stoke, Everton and Man City were playing Sheff Wed, Middlesbrough and Hull respectively, that was always going to happen, wasn’t it?” reckons Alasdair Thomson. Well, not if Southampton win.
60 min: A slightly contentious corner is awarded to Liverpool, with Stekelenburg adjudged to have carried a ball out over the line. Unfortunately for fans of outrage, Liverpool cannot score from it.
59 min: That’s Sturridge’s lot, he’s replaced by Ibe and he doesn’t look delighted about it. There’s a slight sneer as he sees his number go up, his chance of a hat-trick taken away from him. Still, he can’t have it both way - be complaining about niggles, then asking for 90 minutes.
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57 min: Mane passes to Pelle, then runs on past him into the box, so Pelle passes it back to him. He gets to the six yard box and attempts to fire a shot at goal, but the angle and his body shape is against him. The ball pings back out off a Liverpool defender and the move ends.
55 min: A warm chant in honour of Adam Lallana goes up in the stadium. “Adam Lallana, we something or other hate you,” it goes but fails to put the former Southampton man off. He skedaddles into the middle from he left and cracks a shot from 30 yards or so. It balloons out for a goal kick but its the thought that counts.
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52 min: Davis passes to Cedric, who has pushed a long way forward on the right. He crosses, but Mane can’t get a decent shot away, before a period of Southampton pressure outside the box leads to some backs-to-the-wall stuff from Liverpool. A very tight offside call against Bertrand brings Southampton’s little period of dominance to an end.
50 min: Skrtel is caught out as a ball is played over his head. Pelle runs onto it but, as he’s about to pull the trigger, the defender recovers enough to put the striker off his stride.
47 min: Davis finds Bertrand on the overlap who crosses to Pelle. The ball is behind the big striker though and he attempts a bicycle kick but basically knew all along that all that was going to happen was that he was going to hit the deck hard.
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46 min: Southampton win a corner but Liverpool send every man back to deal with it, and deal with it they do.
Peep peep!
Southampton, playing from left to right, get the second half started. Almost immediately, there’s a bit of pushing and shoving down the left wing which bodes well for the rest of the half. Just about the only thing this game needs is a ruck.
This may be a valid point.
@TomBry Not exactly sure Southhampton are currently pro-slavery. Is Klopp Lincoln?
— Harry Kennard (@HarryKennard) December 2, 2015
Unless Southampton can pull something out of the bag, the League Cup is going the way of the American Civil War, with the north dominating and the south out of the game. Currently Stoke, Everton and Manchester City are in the hat, so there’s a chance of a Merseyside derby at some point in the run in.
“Re. Sturridge’s second goal,” emails Matt Dony. “What an absolutely ridiculous pass from Can there. I am slightly torn, though. There’s an undeniable beauty to outside-of-the-boot work like that. But, at the same time, a picky observer could say that he should have used his left ...”
Moreno’s goal has been given to Origi, he got a very slight touch on the ball as it whized through the box. Doesn’t take anything away from the quality of Moreno’s hit, though, and is a reasonably low key way for Origi to get his first Liverpool goal.
PEEP PEEP!
Or will it be three goals to the good? Origi sends a cross to the far post but, despite a diving header at the far post, Southampton clear. And that’s half time.
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45 min + 2: What an extraordinary comeback from Liverpool - they were dead and buried until Sturridge’s first goal and, in fact, pretty much on the ropes after it. For them to finish this half two goals to the good is genuinely impressive given how dominant Southampton were at first.
GOAL! Southampton 1-3 Liverpool (45)
Allen is strong in the box, and he works the ball back to Sturridge, who passes to Randall. His shot deflects behind for a corner. Lallana’s corner finds Sturridge, but he can’t get a head on it and so the ball pings across the box and out to Moreno who is on the edge of the area. He thrashes a shot through the entire Southampton side and into the bottom corner. What a hit!
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43 min: Origi is barged over just outside the Southampton area, and Sturridge and Can lean over the ball having a tactical chat about what to do with it. First, Sturridge moves it three times, then swings a lazy left foot at it to send the ball about 10 yards over the crossbar. Can looks on with a degree of bemusement.
41 min: The ball scrapes off Moreno’s foot, so Tadic lets it go out for a corner to Southampton, only for the linesman to say that, no, in fact it hadn’t come off Moreno’s foot. It had and Tadic is quite stroppy about it.
39 min: Sturridge and Origi combine down the left, paddling the ball between, before Can ends proceedings with a studs up challenge on Cedric Soares just as Liverpool were beginning to look threatening. Moments later Moreno and Tadic clash, with Moreno going down clutching his face (a touch wimpishly). Lallana, somewhat bravely, comes over to plead Moreno’s case to the referee which goes down big with the crowd.
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36 min: In slightly worrying news for Liverpool, Sturridge is flat out on the pitch feeling his heel … before fiddling with his boot, sticking it back on, then getting up and getting on with things again. Southampton have another free kick 20 yards outside the area. There’s some convoluted move afoot which they mess up entirely and Tadic’s ball is charged down and goes straight into touch.
31 min: “You’re not singing anymore,” chant the Liverpool fans, accurately, at the previously boisterous Southampton fans. The home fans are loud enough a moment later when there’s a perceived hand ball in the Liverpool box from that man Randall. The ref waves play on (it wasn’t a handball) but the game has now gone into complete end-to-end mode and is, therefore, excellent.
GOAL! Southampton 1-2 Liverpool (Sturridge, 29)
It’s him again. Can fires a brilliant outside-of-the-boot flick into the box from just outside and Sturridge loses Soares, before sprinting into the area to send his first time shot straight past the keeper. Lovely pass, excellent finish and Liverpool are ahead purely thanks to two great Sturridge finishes and two wonderful assists having been second best most of the way through thus far.
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28 min: Southampton swing a big free kick into the Liverpool box, where the visiting defenders were slightly miffed by the way Van Dijk had positioned himself by simply walking straight at their wall and then straight through it. Liverpool clear.28 min:
GOAL! Southampton 1-1 Liverpool (Sturridge, 25)
He’s back! Allen sends over an exquisite, first time pass from the halfway line and Sturridge controls it in the box, drifts out wide, then fires a shot past Stekelenburg into the far corner. Lovely goal - but entirely against the run of play for Liverpool.
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23 min: Some nice footwork gets Can some room on the left for Liverpool. He sends over a delicious cross but is irritated to discover that the four players in the box are all stood on each other’s toes and nowhere near where he as kicked it.
23 min: Wanyama finds Tadic in the Randall zone on Liverpool’s right. Randall is nowhere near him, and so he simply thwacks a cross into the area for Pelle. He doesn’t get it right, however, and it is entirely harmless. Might not have been though, and he had about another hour to get it in, so far away was the Liverpool left-back.
22 min: Sturridge receives the ball just outside the Liverpool box on the left and is leaned on gently by Caulker, which prompts him to immediately give up possession. Hmmm.
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21 min: Mane scampers into the Liverpool midfield like a malicious whippet, whipping the ball from the toes of the opposition players. He doesn’t do much with it when he gets it, but the pestish work rate is something to behold.
18 min: Lallana is tackled and Southampton erupts into the biggest cheers of the night. Riding it, Southampton surge forward and Mane again has Moreno on toast. A shot is fired in and deflected back out before Southampton build again but Clasie’s pass goes astray.
“Thank you for sharing that heart-warming bit about Klopp gigglepressing the Sky man in response to the query about precisely six changes,” emails Peter Oh. “I love that about the new manager - the ability to have some fun and to laugh at the seriousness of it all. I’m sure Brendan Rodgers had a sharp footballing mind but he often came across as so dour that it seemed to squeeze the fun out of the game.”
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16 min: It’s Lovren’s turn to get booed now but he nonetheless kickstarts a passing move as Liverpool whisk the ball through midfield. Allen play a lovely slide rule ball through the Southampton defence, which Origi latches onto inside the area. He cuts a pass across to Sturridge but is not quite accurate enough and Southampton clear.
15 min: Southampton sweep upfield again, with Wanyama being urged to shoot from outside the area. He does the sensible thing, though, and passes to Bertrand - who is being ‘marked’ by Randall. The Southampton left back sends over a good cross, but though Mane swings a boot at it, he fails to connect.
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13 min: From a long ball upfield, Pelle nods the ball down for Mane who turns and shoots from outside the area. He can’t get power or angle on it, and Moreno deflects the ball out for a throw in.
@TomBry Are you certain it's not Hopkirk (Deceased) at right back for Liverpool?
— Stelios J (@Tsaksonakis) December 2, 2015
Very good.
11 min: Lallana jinks up the Liverpool left wing and is so untouched by Southampton players, it’s as though they’ve forgotten he does not play for them anymore. He wins a corner as boos ring out loudly. The corner is then whanged wildly over the entire penalty box.
10 min: Corner to Liverpool, which is swung in by Moreno. Origi gets u to head it, take a barge in the back from his team-mate Lovren, and nods it wide.
9 min: Tadic tries to run past Randall and, maintaining his form of the first five minutes, the right back gets himself booked for shoving the Southampton man in the face. Davis thumps the free-kick into the area and Pelle nods it across to Mane, who can’t get a shot in, before another effort is rifled over the bar. This is quite the start from Southampton.
7 min: Southampton do some pressing of their own, putting such pressure on Can in midfield that he sends a back pass straight past the intended recipient Skrtel and is fortunate he hits it hard enough for it to roll back to Bogdan.
5 min: In what is virtually a carbon copy of the goal, Tadic sends over another great cross from the left to find Wanyama, making a late run into the box, but he heads straight at Bogdan. Randall, the former Liverpool academy player, is at right back for Klopp’s side tonight and he’s had a turgid first five minutes.
4 min: Wanyama has gone down in a heap and the resulting break in play has given Klopp a chance to berate the fourth official about something or other. Can’t see that it had anything to do with the goal though - Moreno was beaten fair and square at the back stick.
2 min: What a minute for Southampton fans: first they get to boo Lallana, then they get to cheer a Mané header. Almost worth heading home now just in case it doesn’t get any better than this. Bertrand was almost entirely unbothered by any pressing, incidentally, when sending that cross over. Gegenpressing. Pah.
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Liverpool (Mane, 1)
Bertrand sends a delicious cross into the box and, from six yards out, Mane gets up above Moreno and buries the header. What a start!
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Peep peep
Liverpool get the game under way, rousing boos for Adam Lallana all round.
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack: the teams are wandering down the tunnel then out onto the pitch before shaking hands in the civil manner.
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Jürgen Klopp is chatting to the Sky cameras, and says Sturridge is in good shape and he is looking forward to playing him - there is something veiled in there, though can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s a little as though Klopp’s saying ‘why wouldn’t I play him, THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM’. That’s purely my reading though.
The Sky man tells Klopp he’s made six changes since the last match and the Liverpool manager giggles. Actually giggles. “I didn’t count them, to be honest,” he says between giggles. “We did,” says Sky man. “Thanks,” offers Klopp. Righto.
Look away now, Southampton fans:
Liverpool have a 75% success record in League Cup quarter-finals, winning 15 out of 20 #CapitalOneCup
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 2, 2015
Southampton have lost their last 6 League Cup quarter-final ties since win v Shrewsbury in Jan 1987 #CapitalOneCup
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 2, 2015
Meanwhile, Koeman has failed to win his last seven matches against Liverpool (D2, L5). the Southampton manager is aiming to use his full-backs - Cedric Soares and Ryan Bertrand - offensively to counteract the Klopp pressing game.
In what is a nice touch, Southampton are offering two match programmes tonight - the one that’s actually for tonight or a reprint 1986-87 League Cup semi-final programme from when these two sides met back then.
Great touch to reprint in full 86/87 League Cup semi final programme between Southampton & Liverpool. pic.twitter.com/8lIIJIPZ3U
— Mark Pougatch (@markpougatch) December 2, 2015
“As a Liverpool fan, I have been worried about the depth of the full-backs for the past few weeks given the fact that Clyne and Moreno seemed to have played every minute of every game since Klopp arrived,” emails Bryan Tisinger. “If either one, or God forbid both, of those guys were to get hurt, I have no idea who would replace them. Jose Enrique at LB and James Milner at RB? Other than Milner, I don’t think anyone has done more running than the two full-backs. Anyone have the advanced metrics showing distance covered by Liverpool players since Klopp arrived?” Erm, I’ll just have a rummage ... no. Will be interesting to see how Connor Randall gets on - this is his second senior appearance - and interesting too to see what Klopp’s policy towards brining on talent from the academy will be.
For Southampton, Ward-Prowse, Yoshida drops to the bench and Tadic starts after coming on from the bench against Manchester City last week. Caulker replaces the injured captain Fonte, while Pellè (suspended against Manchester City) returns for Long. Probably about as strong a team as Koeman could put out but will be interesting to see a potentially rusty Sturridge against a potentially rusty Caulker.
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So Sturridge starts for Liverpool and has a point to prove about his toughness tonight to his manager and the club’s fans. Henderson is on the bench but Coutinho is not risked. Lallana and Lovren will no doubt expect to be cheered to the rafters on their return to Southampton.
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Teams
Southampton: Stekelenburg, Cedric Soares, Caulker, van Dijk, Bertrand, Clasie, Wanyama, Mane, Steven Davis, Tadic, Pelle.
Subs: Yoshida, Long, Romeu, Martina, Ward-Prowse, Juanmi, Gazzaniga.
Liverpool: Bogdan, Randall, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno, Can, Lucas, Allen, Origi, Sturridge, Lallana.
Subs: Milner, Benteke, Firmino, Henderson, Mignolet, Ibe, Smith.
Referee: Robert Madley (West Yorkshire)
Preamble
In recent seasons, Liverpool have treated their visits to Southampton as something akin to a group scouting mission, cause of just enough bad blood between fans of either side to give this match a little extra needle. Quite whether the bad blood is as a result of Southampton fans getting upset at Liverpool for pinching their best players, or Liverpool fans getting miffed at those players instantly becoming bobbins the minute they’re on the M3 in a fast car is a question that’s still to be answered. Either way, Jürgen Klopp is aware of the needle: “I hear Southampton and Liverpool are not the best friends, so it will be a feisty game,” he said.
Liverpool have won the League Cup eight times, and made the semis three times in the past five years. As such this competition may well offer Klopp his best chance of winning silverware in his first season in England, just as it once did for José Mourinho (who did it against Liverpool). It means Klopp’s keen to progress but is keeping his expectations under control: “The biggest fault you can make is to think about the next round. Only Southampton. They’re pretty hot on this game, they’ve lost their last two games and they want to strike back.”
Daniel Sturridge will be in the squad, as will Jordan Henderson, while there’s a chance Philippe Coutinho will have recovered from a hamstring injury. Quite how substantial their involvement in the game will be, though, is not clear. “Henderson and Sturridge will be in the squad,” said Klopp. “We have these two options. We can’t ignore that there could be extra-time. 120 minutes would be too much for them.”
Ronald Koeman has his tactics for dealing with Southampton’s opponents tonight. “We know Liverpool like to press and if you beat the press then you have a lot of options and possibilities. We showed that in the second half against Manchester City.” But he has a few other concerns - namely the fact that, though it won’t necessarily be Liverpool who plunder his squad next summer, someone will. Sadio Mané is understood to want to go to Manchester United, Graziano Pellè is expecting to be wooed by someone, Victor Wanyama will have a year left on his contract in the summer and has angled for a move before.
“How do I feel about it? Quiet, easy, easy-going,” Koeman said. “Because you have to know the situation of the club and you have to know the ambition of those kind of players. It’s normal that there is interest.” But he knows that winning things is a very good way to keep people in Southampton - which is why he’s pretty keen on the League Cup.
“What we did last season was fantastic but it was qualification to the Europa League,” Koeman said. “It was not a trophy or a title. Now, we have a chance and, after several seasons doing fantastic work, maybe this [a trophy] is something that the club needs. We don’t have a lot of players winning titles and that is the best for a footballer – that you can celebrate after winning something important.”
In the meantime, before kick-off, here’s a short video comparing current and former Saints and the link between the two clubs involved at St Mary’s.
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