Jordon Ibe scored the only goal of the game as Liverpool edged out Stoke to gain the advantage in the League Cup first leg on Tuesday night.
There were more injuries than concrete chances in the first half but Ibe, who had benefited from the casualties, popped up seven minutes before half time to give the Reds the lead.
Both teams were pressing to score the second goal with Marko Arnautovic in particular missing a golden chance in the wind and rain at the Britannia.
The win mean Jurgen Klopp’s side are in pole position to go to Wembley, with the return leg at Anfield on January 26. Liverpool began the brighter of the two teams, pressing high and penning Stoke into their own half, but were unable to create anything clear-cut in the early stages.
Adam Lallana came close with a swerving 25-yard shot which Jack Butland did well to keep control over after good build up play involving Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino.
However, the Reds suffered a double injury blow with first Coutinho, and then Dejan Lovren, hobbling off the Britannia turf with hamstring injuries.
However, one of the replacements, Ibe, was the one to break the deadlock. He finished off a smart counter-attacking move after James Milner – the other substitute – released Lallana down right before Joe Allen’s miss-kick fell into Ibe’s path to slot home.
Stoke nearly hit back immediately but Arnautovic glanced his header wide of the post.
The second half was more of an end to end affair with only a crunching tackle from makeshift centre-back Lucas enough to stop Bojan from jinking his way through the Liverpool defence.
Minutes later Allen went down asking for a penalty but Milner played on only to see his left-footed shot blocked on the line.
There was almost an embarrassing moment for Butland, who Firmino charge down his low clearance, but fortunately for the recently crowned England under-21 player of the year, it ricocheted straight into his arms.
With Stoke trying to force an equaliser, Joselu managed to get on the end of Xherdan Shaqiri’s corner, but could only lift it high over the bar.
Mark Hughes will hope his attacking quadrant of Arnautovic, Shaqiri, Bojan and Ibrahim Afellay are more prominent for the return leg in three weeks’ time.
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Source: Talksport