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Photo by Nikki Dyer - LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images2024 Liverpool FC
A side made up of youth players and fringe players and players returning from injury earned a solid road win to advance to the League Cup semi-final.
For most of the first half, it felt as though the wind and rain on the south coast might end up being the toughest part of their task for Liverpool as the Reds took on Southampton in their League Cup quarter final on Wednesday evening.
Eventually, though, the struggling Saints did make a push, the Premier League’s last-place side digging deep to make a game of it in the second half but still coming up short as the Reds nursed a 2-1 lead over the line and advanced to the semi-finals.
“With the circumstances that Southampton are going through, we knew they were going to fight,” Harvey Elliott, scorer of Liverpool’s second goal of the evening, said following the final whistle. “We had to be ready for that.
“I feel like for a team like we put out there today—some of us haven’t played much this season and we had some really young lads as well—we fought as a team and came away with the win, and despite conceding I felt like we did well.”
Southampton’s desperate second half push that saw them get back a goal on 59 minutes and make things a little nervier the rest of the way than many would have expected aside, it was a solid and professional outing for the Reds.
Given the team composition, though, all young players and fringe players and players like Elliott returning from injuries and players played out of position to plug gaps, it’s hard to be anything but pleased by both the result and how they played.
Liverpool learn their semi-final opponent after Tottenham and Manchester United play out the final quarter-final tonight, with Newcastle advancing past Brentford and Arsenal beating Crystal Palace to advance alongside Liverpool on Wednesday.
