LIVERPOOL REACHED THE League Cup quarter-finals in thrilling style as their incredible 5-5 draw against Arsenal was followed by a 5-4 penalty shoot-out triumph tonight.
Both Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Arsenal boss Unai Emery made 11 changes for the fourth round tie, but the understudies served up one of the most entertaining games of the season at Anfield.
Arsenal enjoyed a memorable 6-3 League Cup quarter-final win at Liverpool in 2007, but this time they squandered multiple leads in an even more dramatic clash.
In the shoot-out, Dani Ceballos’ penalty was saved by 20-year-old Irish keeper Caoimhin Kelleher before Liverpool-born 18-year-old Curtis Jones converted the winning kick.
What a night for Caoimhín Kelleher #COYBIG 🇮🇪 🇮🇪 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/fBGB0sODEo
— One Team In Ireland (@1TeaminIreland) October 30, 2019
Liverpool have won the League Cup a record eight times and they remain on course to lift the trophy for the first time since 2012.
After Granit Xhaka’s astonishing outburst at Arsenal fans during Sunday’s traumatic Premier League draw with Crystal Palace, this was another body blow for Arsenal, who lost despite leading 3-1, 4-2 and then 5-4 with seconds to go.
Xhaka was absent while Emery debates whether to strip the midfielder of the captaincy, but Arsenal were unable to take advantage of Liverpool’s youthful line-up.
With an average age of 23 years and 122 days, it was Liverpool’s youngest starting eleven in any competition since January 2017 as teenagers Neco Williams, Harvey Elliott, Rhian Brewster and Sepp Van Den Berg all featured.
Liverpool’s rookies went ahead after just six minutes as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sent over a low cross and Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi, sliding in to clear, accidently deflected it onto his knee and into the back of his own net.
Arsenal drew level in the 19th minute via an assist from the rarely used Mesut Ozil, who was making his only his third appearance of the season and his first since 24 September.
Ozil picked out Bukayo Saka in space and when his shot was saved, the unmarked Lucas Torreira slotted home.
- Origi heroics -
Emery’s team took the lead in the 26th minute when Gabriel Martinelli fired into the roof of the net from close-range.
Martinelli struck again 10 minutes later with his seventh goal in seven appearances this season.
James Milner reduced Liverpool’s deficit with a 43rd minute penalty, before Ainsley Maitland-Niles got Arsenal’s fourth goal in the 54th minute.
Oxlade-Chamberlain got one back for Liverpool with a thunderous long-range drive four minutes later.
And Divock Origi equalised with an even better strike in the 62nd minute as the Belgian spun sharply before blasting into the top corner from the edge of the area.
But Willock restored Arsenal’s lead in the 70th minute with another contender for goal of the night, the midfielder sprinting away before unleashing a 25-yard rocket.
It was only the second time Liverpool have conceded five goals in a home match in the last 66 years.
Remarkably, that wasn’t the end of the scoring and Origi acrobatically volleyed Liverpool’s equaliser in stoppage-time, setting the stage for their shoot-out success.
On the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly, Eoin Toolan and Murray Kinsella provide their insight into how England took apart the All Blacks, and examine the challenge facing Rassie’s ‘Boks
