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Preview: Fulham venture into unknown territory
Good evening and welcome to live coverage of the first leg of the second League Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Fulham from Anfield. Liverpool, top of the Premier League and nine-time winners of the League/ Milk/ Littlewoods/ Rumbelows/ Coca-cola/ Worthington/ Carling/ Capital One/ EFL/ Carabao Cup, have played only three ties to get here, beating Championship leaders Leicester, Bournemouth and then mauling West Ham 5-1 in the quarters.
Fulham have played one tie more, sandwiching victories on penalties over Spurs and here, across Stanley Park, against Everton, with dispatching the East Anglian Championship titans, Norwich and Ipswich. Marco Silva’s side are 13th in the Premier League having beaten Arsenal on New Year’s Eve and were 2-3 up at Anfield in December with three minutes to go before Wataru Endo and Trent Alexander-Arnold burst their bubble.
Trent Alexander-Arnold spanks in the late winner in the home league victory over Fulham but is out injured tonight
Credit: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
This is the first time they have met in this competition since five ties encompassing nine games in a 17-year stretch from 1983-2000 which included a famous 10-0 walloping in 1986 when Steve McMahon (‘he sure can rap’) scored four. Liverpool prevailed in all of those ties and are odds-on to do so gain to end Fulham’s first ever venture into the semi-finals in a fortnight’s time at Craven Cottage. But Fulham did win at Anfield during Liverpool’s annus horribilis in the 2020-21 season when Mario Lemina fired the relegation-bound club to a 1-0 victory.
Liverpool welcome Virgil van Dijk back from illness but will be without Trent Alexander-Arnold, hurt at the Emirates on Sunday, bothorthodox left-backs, Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas, Dominik Szoboszlai and the three long-term absentees Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara and Joel Matip. In addition Endo is in Qatar at the Asia Cup and Mohamed Salah is at Afcon with Egypt in Côte d’Ivoire where they start their campaign against Mozambique on Sunday. Fulham have only Adama Traore and Tim Ream as doubts but also have Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi away with Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Silva points to that defeat in December as a lesson learnt and has emphasised the value of staying in the tie. “Game management is going to be really important during the next match against them at Anfield,” he said. “You know how Liverpool normally play at home, they are normally on the front foot, their home form has been brilliant this season. We have to understand the game to play there. At the same time, do it in the right balance, because we have a chance to have a second game at home to decide something.”