Liverpool vs Stoke City – Capital One Cup – Preview

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Sreya

Liverpool welcome Stoke City to Anfield on Tuesday, 26th January for the crucial second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-finals. The Kops had won the first leg at Britannia Stadium 1-0 courtesy a goal from Jordon Ibe in the first half.

It was a well-taken goal by the youngster after Adam Lallana’s cut-back was sent his way by Joe Allen. The one-goal advantage could prove to be significant with Liverpool’s defence struggling spectacularly in the last few weeks.

In spite of good performances against Arsenal and Manchester United, Liverpool won just a solitary point in those two league fixtures as they conceded four goals. This past weekend, Jurgen Klopp’s side played out a nine-goal thriller against Norwich winning it late into the stoppage time.

Stoke City, who are aiming to get into a cup final for the first time since 1972, will fancy their chances considering Liverpool’s poor set-piece defending in recent past.

Team News

Liverpool will be without Divock Origi (knee), Philippe Coutinho (hamstring), Dejan Lovren (hamstring), Martin Skrtl (hamstring) and Daniel Sturridge (hip) who are all sidelined with injuries.

Jon Walters (knee) is a confirmed absentee for Stoke City. Marko Arnautovic (hamstring) missed the match against Leicester City but is expected to feature tomorrow. While Hughes will hope Ryan Shawcross is fit to start, Marc Muniesa, Steven Ireland and Geoff Cameron are doubts as well.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“Even though we conceded four goals off set-plays, we defended them better. It was unbelievable. They got all of their goals from the second balls at set-plays. Things like this can happen. Now we have made different mistakes. We take this and if you win 5-4 it is a funny story, but it is not that funny and we have to solve it.

That is how life is: you fix one problem, you have got another one. Now we have to solve this and hopefully the two days to the Stoke game are enough for this.”

– Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool.

“We found it difficult all match and from our point of view we need to bounce back quickly now because we have a huge game in midweek. More often than not when we suffer disappointments we usually bounce back strongly, so hopefully that will be the case at Anfield. I back my team to do that.”

– Mark Hughes, Stoke City.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, Liverpool have won 52% of their matches against Stoke City. It should be a closely contested affair, but Liverpool are likely to progress to the finals, although a 2-2 draw is the most probable result of this fixture.