Liverpool beats Stoke 1-0 in League Cup semifinal first leg

Stoke City vs. Liverpool kicks off at 8pm GMT.

Liverpool will once again lock horns with Stoke City in the semifinal second leg on January 27. We must wait for the single game.

Liverpool: Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Can, Lucas Coutinho, Lallana; Firmino; Benteke.

Like all the top sides this season effectively, Man City have been frustratingly inconsistent since the beginning of the campaign.

Liverpool looked in imperious form in their quarter-final tie with Southampton.

“Anyone watching Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat at West Ham on Saturday lunchtime will have been struck by their aerial frailty at the back”.

Yet the England global has not been playing like a £38million-plus footballer in recent times – he is part of an Everton team that has one of the worst defensive records in the Premier League and featured in the side that shipped four against Stoke recently.

What have the managers been saying?

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Jordon Ibe – who replaced the stricken Coutinho after 18 minutes – scored the only goal of the game eight minutes before the interval. We have the capability to get back into it.

Stoke have shown a number of times already this season that they have the ability to pass their way through teams and catch them on the counter attack well, but they never really clicked into gear in front of their home crowd. Lovren acknowledged that his manager had every right to vent his anger following the West Ham game, the Croatian centre-back saying: “We are disappointed”. We focus on the next game in hand. “The good thing in this moment is we have played different styles and adapted against special opponents”.

“We can do well in all of the cup competitions we’re featuring in”. Stoke this year have been a very good team.

What are the key talking points?

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“We have five hamstrings (Coutinho, Lovren, Martin Skrtel, Jordan Rossiter and Divock Origi with Daniel Sturridge still rehabilitating from one) and it’s my responsibility but it is like it is and we have to see what we can do”. “We’ll check everyone and more often than not when we do disappoint, which we did on Saturday, we bounce back quickly”, said manager Mark Hughes.

James Milner is back in the squad after injury. On the way to lifting the trophy in 1995, 2001 and 2012, the Reds overcame Stoke in at least one of the earlier rounds.

The Reds are looking to position themselves well for the second leg of their semi-final as they bid to reach the final of the competition for the first time since their last trophy win in 2012.