Liverpool are in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Anfield on Wednesday night. They won the penalty shootout 6-5 in front of 60,214 fans. Then the draw handed Andoni Iraola the one tie he wanted to avoid. Liverpool will host Bournemouth, his old club.
Two penalties before half-time
Chelsea went ahead after 40 minutes. Ryan Gravenberch brought down Moises Caicedo in the box, and Morgan Rogers scored the penalty.
The lead lasted three minutes. Wesley Fofana handled the ball in a crowded box after a corner, and Cody Gakpo hit the second penalty of the night low past Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders.
Iraola had made seven changes to his team, with Arsenal coming to Anfield on Sunday. Nobody found a winner after the break, so the game went to penalties.
Gomez scores, Fofana misses
Giorgi Mamardashvili saved from Emmanuel Emegha, and Valentin Barco hit the post for Chelsea. Kostas Tsimikas could not take his chance and fired over for Liverpool.
In sudden death, defender Joe Gomez scored with a hard shot, and Fofana sent his kick high over the bar. Liverpool were through.
“We are really happy with the performances of a lot of the players and obviously happy to finish on the right end of the penalty shoot-out,” Iraola said after the game. He also praised the young players in his team, Trey Nyoni among them. “It’s good for the young players especially to live these experiences in cup competitions,” he said.
The draw Iraola did not want
Bournemouth beat Aston Villa 3-0 on the same night to reach the last eight. That set up a meeting with their former coach.
“I was talking before the draw and I said: ‘The only team that I don’t want is Bournemouth,'” Iraola told reporters. He called the tie special because “they know me very well”.
He felt Liverpool have not had much luck with draws this season. “But we have to earn the right to be in the semi-finals and I hope we can do it here at home again,” he added.
The quarter-finals will be played in the week starting 14 December.
Alonso moves on
Chelsea coach Xabi Alonso did not make a big deal of the defeat. “It is a small setback, probably the least important competition for us so we move on,” he said. His team now turn back to the Premier League on Saturday.
Our take
This was a good night for Iraola. He changed seven players and still knocked Chelsea out, which says a lot about the depth of his squad right now.
The Bournemouth tie is a different kind of test. His old players know his ideas better than anyone, and they come into it after brushing Villa aside. Standing in the other dugout against a club he knows so well will feel strange for him.
December is a long way off, though. First comes Arsenal on Sunday, and that game is far bigger for Liverpool’s season.
Can Bournemouth knock out their old coach in December? Tell us in the comments.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Andoni Iraola by Timmy96 (CC0), Joe Gomez by Timmy96 (CC0), Cody Gakpo by Timmy96 (CC0), The Kop at Anfield by Tobias Barkskog (CC BY 3.0).
