Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has praised Anfield’s “special atmosphere” as his side sealed a place in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley.
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Liverpool has a narrow lead over Stoke heading into the second match, while Everton hold a 2-1 aggregate score heading into this week.
The ball certainly saw some air time but four shots on target in 120 minutes underlined the lack of quality in the game and penalties were nearly inevitable from the moment that Marko Arnautovic struck a controversial goal for Stoke in the first half.
Mignolet saved twice in the shootout, including a brilliant stop to deny Marc Muniesa in sudden death, which allowed Joe Allen to stroke home the decisive spotkick and send Liverpool to Wembley.
The Reds host Stoke City tomorrow in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals and the German manager had both good and bad news for the press assembled at Melwood.
No general sale tickets will be sold via Wembley Stadium’s official website so fans will need to book their place in the final by visiting their respective club’s ticketing sites once the semi-final ties have been played. We’ve proved for a couple of years that we’re a good team.
Hughes said scans had shown there was “just a little bit of tightness” rather than any major damage to Arnautovic’s hamstring and that Stoke would make sure the Austria worldwide, having trained on Monday, was “primed and ready to go” for Tuesday night. “Reaching a final is great but it only matters when you win it. You should celebrate it more in your mind than in the real world but it’s football and you should not waste opportunities to win something”. More importantly, however, The Reds’ rare away victory looked to have set up a fairly straightforward progression to the final to face either Everton or Manchester City. It was [Jack] Butland to [Peter] Crouch so it was hard to defend.
“We concede this goal, an offside goal”.
“In general play we got the goal which won us the game but not the tie; I think it was offside marginally but it was the least we deserved”.
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Clyne was injured in Liverpool’s 5-4 Premier League win against Norwich City on Saturday, meaning that Jon Flanagan could make his first start since the end of the 2013-14 season when he underwent two knee operations. And I think when you are in that situation as a player or a manager, it clears the mind.
