Fighting for the right to earn a Wembley date with either Chelsea or Middlesbrough, Fulham and Liverpool renew hostilities for the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final at Craven Cottage on Wednesday night.
The Cottagers managed to draw first blood in their opening encounter at Anfield two weeks, only to become the Reds' latest comeback victims in a 2-1 loss, but the die is far from cast.
The ex-Chelsea man made the most of an uncharacteristic Virgil van Dijk blunder, and Fulham's rigid defensive structure held out until Curtis Jones's highly fortuitous, deflected equaliser, which came mere moments before Cody Gakpo completed a quintessential Reds turnaround.
The introductions of Gakpo and chaos agent Darwin Nunez - who ended the night with two assists to his name - proved to be Fulham's downfall at Anfield, but there was no sense of doom and gloom among the travelling fans, as their first-ever EFL Cup semi-final tie is far from a foregone conclusion.
Aiming to become the 37th different team to compete in the EFL Cup final, Fulham must buck an unsightly trend that has bedevilled many first-leg losers before them, as only 25% of teams to suffer defeat in the opening semi-final match successfully turned the tie around in the second meeting.
0 Comments