Liverpool beats Leicester in penalties in Carabao Cup

Leicester City fans are still shocked and thinking how they lost the game to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup quarterfinals when they had a 3-1 lead in halftime. Leicester betting rating went top to down in the span of 45 minutes as they lost the game.

There were several changes in the line-up of Liverpool as they rested many of the senior players. Salah and Mane were not in the squad. Jota started the game from the bench. Leicester City decided to keep their strongest XI as their Premier League match against Everton was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in England. The players got the rest, so Brendon Rodgers decided to start all the main players against the young Liverpool side.

Leicester City had the upper hand in the game as expected. Liverpool side was inexperienced and the Foxes to the advantage. Jamie Vardy had scored in quick succession to give the Foxes an early two-goal lead by the 13th minute. He scored the first goal in the 9th minute. But Liverpool was trying their best to get their opening goal, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled one back right after the 20th minute for the hosts.

As Liverpool was trying to get the equaliser, the Foxes scored the third in the 33rd minute. James Maddison restored Leicester’s advantage in the 33rd minute with a stunner from outside. Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher was helpless when he took the shot.
At the end of the first half, it felt like Liverpool would not be able to strike back as Leicester dominated the match and had the confidence of the two-goal lead.

In the second half, Jurgen Klopp made three changes. He substituted all the youngsters. James Milner, Diogo Jota and Konate came in for Tyler Morton, Conor Bradley and Billy Koumetio.

In the 68th minute, Jota gave some hope to the Reds as they scored the second goal and reduced the lead. In the added minutes, Minamino stunned the Leicester fans to score the equaliser in the 95th minute to take the game to the penalties.

In the penalties, both teams scored the first three penalties. But Leicester’s third penalty was saved by Kelleher, and Keita scored to give an advantage for Liverpool. But Minamino missed the next one and threw away the edge. Kelleher saved Ryan Bertrand’s effort, his second save of the shoot-out. Jota scored the final kick and placed Liverpool in the semifinals.

Liverpool will face Arsenal in the semifinals. “I am really, really happy. Really happy with the performance, with the spirit, with the mentality, in a lot of moments with the football,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said after the match.

“We had to change the structure of the team in the second half because of the injuries,” said the Leicester manager, who was unable to call on Vardy in the shoot-out as his goalscorer was nursing a hamstring problem.