Klopp’s club triumphed 6-5 on penalty kicks, meaning they’ll face the victor of Manchester City-Everton at Wembley Stadium.
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Before Raheem Sterling became the most expensive English player in Premier League history, there was a long drawn out period of drama at his former club, involving his agent and then Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.
“Now we will watch the game between Everton and Manchester City. He has been out since May 2014 and played 105 minutes, and even when we took him out he told us he could go on”.
“Being in the final is good, but the important thing is to win”. That will be great for the whole city. “It is great the Blues and Reds are together in normal life but want to beat each other in sport, which is normal”. In a derby do everything to beat them.
Liverpool kept their nerve, despite being taken to the limit by Stoke, who thought they were on their way to Wembley with a goal just before the first half interval from Marko Arnautovic, which was clearly offside.
Sky Bet’s Joe Petyt said: “Reds boss Jurgen Klopp promised that they would win the cup last night but they’ll have to do so as big underdogs”.
Both sides hit the post thereafter – Roberto Firmino for Liverpool, substitute Marco van Ginkel for Stoke – before Simon Mignolet’s saves in the shoot-out.
Mark Hughes’s Stoke had eliminated holders Chelsea in round four, but despite recording a first win inside 90 minutes at Anfield since March 1959, they fell short in their bid to reach their first League Cup final since they won the tournament in 1972. Liverpool struggled to breakdown a resolute Stoke defence and after neither side could add to the scoring for the remainder of the match, it went to penalties.
“We tried to have a bit more structure, but all knew we hadn’t been good enough”.
“He’s a fantastic player and hopefully he’ll get more starts”.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly nervous walking up there but I think you get into the zone, this is what we do day-in and day-out”.
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“At the end in a penalty shoot-out you always need luck and we had it”.
