Liverpool have beaten Stoke City 6-5 in a penalty shoot out on Tuesday night at Anfield to earn a trip to Wembley for the League Cup Final next month. The Reds had brought a 1-0 lead to Anfield from the first leg, but lost the second leg at home tonight when Marko Arnuatovic brought the tie back on level terms by scoring in injury time at the end of the first half, from a border line offside position.
Both teams had half chances to seal the win in normal time, but the best opportunity of the day fell late in the game when substitute Marco van Ginkel, on loan from Chelsea, ran onto Peter Crouch's knock down, and hit the post with Simon Mignolet well beaten.
The game headed to penalties and after a perfect start from Jon Walters and Adam Lallana, Mignolet guessed right and went down to his right to stop Peter Crouch's effort to give Liverpool the edge. That advantage lasted barely seconds as Emre Can hit the woodwork with his follow-up keeping the score at 1-1.
Glenn Whelan, Christian Benteke, Ibrahim Afellay, Roberto Firmino, Xherdan Shaqiri, James Milner, Marco van Ginkel and Lucas produced 8 perfect penalties between them to level the scores at 5-5 with sudden death already in progress.
Marc Muniesa, looking every bit as nervous as he must have felt had his effort saved again by Mignolet, diving full length to his left this time. And then Joe Allen with the weight of Anfield on his shoulders, struck a beautiful spot kick, straight into the top corner to win it 6-5 for the Reds and book a trip for Liverpool to Anfield.
That match will be held on 28th February, with Liverpool squaring off against the winner of the Manchester City - Everton tie tomorrow, with the Merseysiders leading 2-1 from the home leg.
Match-winner Joe Allen told Sky Sports after netting the winning pen, "I was nervous, there was confusion about who would take the seventh penalty but I picked the right corner and it's electric here now."
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