10 men Arsenal holds Liverpool in the first leg semi-final of EFL Cup
Liverpool welcomed Arsenal at Anfield as Gunners survived with 10 for more than an hour in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals.
The game was originally supposed to be the second-leg tie. But after a batch of what turned out to be false-positive Covid-19 results at Liverpool, last week’s game had to be pushed further.
The winner of this tie will face Chelsea, who marched over Tottenham 3-0 on aggregate to reach the finals.
Arteta’s Arsenal came straight into trouble with Granit Xhaka’s red card at the 24th-minute mark. But despite being down to 10 men early on in the game Arsenal’s resilience and determination were at their peak.
Without Salah and Mane in the squad, clearly makes a big difference for Liverpool. But still, it was a strong team set up by Klopp for the game.
There wasn’t creativity, no imagination, no rhythm, and only one shot on target very late into the game. Klopp must be fuming with the boys for the poor performance displayed at home.
Going into Anfield and getting a result is a mammoth task for any away side. Despite losing Xhaka early on, credit goes to Arsenal for their strong defensive display which is an unusual sighting.
It ended goalless between Liverpool and 10-man Arsenal at full-time.
The tie is poised for the second leg, with Liverpool travelling to the Emirates for that game next Thursday. Meanwhile, both sides are back in Premier League action at the weekend.
Liverpool vs Arsenal: Post match reaction
Klopp speaks on the result and Liverpool’s performance.
We started in the game like we wanted to start and then there was the red card and then we play against a low block. Against a low block with the most finely-tuned team is difficult and obviously we are not – then on top of that, we made a few wrong decisions, we felt too much rushed, it looked like all of sudden we felt under pressure, which doesn’t make sense but it looked for me a little bit like that. It is a typical situation.
When asked about how he thinks the second leg will pan out
I have no idea what Arsenal will do when we face them, we will see that. It is not in my mind in the moment – my mind is already Brentford, so from Monday on you can ask me these thing of things about what we will do there.
Klopp reacts to whether Liverpool ‘tried too hard to win the game after Xhaka’s dismissal
Yes, in moments, yes. After the red card, yes.
Klopp’s reaction on whether it is a ‘tough blow’ to potentially be without Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah for the whole of January.
Tell me one team who wouldn’t miss Sadio Mane and Mo Salah and Naby Keita! Of course we miss them. We have known that already for years that it could happen. So, could we have been better prepared for it? I don’t think so because all the things we did in the past were because we had the team we had, so that’s the situation.
What’s next for Liverpool?
Liverpool will host Brentford at Anfield on Sunday for the Premier League clash. Klopp & Co. can close the gap at the top with a win against the Bees.
But before the Reds faces Thomas Frank’s side Klopp will keep an eye on the big game between Man City and Chelsea, in the battle at the top of the table.
