Key events
Xabi Alonso – a European champion with Liverpool but having suffered two defeats out of two as a visiting manager with Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid – speaks to Sky Sports. “The cups are important for us this year … we have a good challenge here coming to Anfield … it’s make or break … we want to make it happen today … we know we need a great performance … we have taken [this competition] from the beginning seriously … our players have played a few times already here … hopefully they will show it today.”
Pre-match postbag. “I’m loving the balance of experience and youth in the Liverpool starting XI. Jürgen had Klopp’s kids. Arne could have rolled out Slot’s Snappers more often. Today we’ve got Iraola’s Imps!” – Peter Oh
“Looking at the Liverpool line-up, I can only think that Iraola has decided not to risk the prospect of drawing the mighty Fleetwood Town in the next round” – Vanessa Edwards
“For the sake of the integrity of the Carabao Cup I think we are all Brighton fans tonight. If City stay in the competition and then lose their appeal (almost inevitable) then how on earth does that get resolved?” – Rick Harris
“Anfield is nine miles from where I currently slouch and I can feel the anticipation from here. Something might just be afoot. Hope? Hendo also returns. But am glad he has scored his one cracker for the season already” – Ian Copestake (and readers who enjoy making speculative investments may be interested to note that, now Ian’s said that, you can get 28s on Henderson scoring the first goal tonight)
Andoni Iraola speaks to Sky Sports. “We need fresh legs … a lot of players are waiting for this competition to have their starts, their minutes … they are pushing hard … so I have trust that they can perform well … the bench is always important … we have good options … according to how the game goes, we will decide one way or another … we need to keep winning games … we need to keep going … it does not stop … the level of our opposition is very high … everyone has to play their part … I hope today they do … Chelsea have a very strong starting XI … we have to respect them … we have to be at our very best if we want to beat them … we always practice [penalties] … I don’t know if it is better or worse, I think Fleetwood didn’t practice and they were incredible! … but we always do it!”
A reminder that the draw for the quarter-finals will take place tonight. The tombola is scheduled to begin spinning at around 10.20pm UK time, so we can probably add 10-20 minutes to that, The Man is notorious for dragging his feet at these things. There are already two balls in the spinner: Bradford City and Fleetwood Town, the latter having done a proper number on the reigning champions of England last night.
Chelsea make four changes after their 0-2 home reverse to Tottenham Hotspur. Danny Welbeck, Roméo Lavia, Malo Gusto and Wesley Fofana come in for Levi Colwill and Geovany Quenda, who are benched, the injured Jorrel Hato, and the suspended Cole Palmer.
Liverpool make seven changes to their starting XI following the 2-0 win at the weekend over Brighton. Giorgi Mamardashvili, Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell, Lewis Koumas and Rio Ngumoha are in; Alisson, Jérémy Jacquet, Florian Wirtz, Alexis Mac Allister, Bradley Barcola and Alexander Isak drop to the bench, while Milos Kerkez misses out altogether.
The teams
Liverpool: Mamardashvili, Gomez, van Dijk, Araujo, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Nyoni, Ngumoha, McConnell, Gakpo, Koumas.
Subs: Alisson, Endo, Jacquet, Wirtz, Isak, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Barcola, Chambers.
Chelsea: Penders, Gusto, Lacroix, Fofana, Acheampong, Henderson, Caicedo, Lavia, Pedro Neto, Welbeck, Rogers.
Subs: Sharman-Lowe, Colwill, Subuloye, Palestra, Barco, Nicoll-Jazuli, Estevao, Quenda, Emegha.
Referee: Darren England.
VAR: No VAR!
Preamble
Welcome to a re-run of this …
… and this …
… the narrative of which can only be successfully told and subsequently analysed through the prism of tonight’s team selections. And let’s face it, you’ll be doing well to predict those accurately. News when we have it, and we’ll take it from there. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
