In demolishing West Ham 5-1 to reach yet another League Cup semi-final, Jurgen Klopp oversaw a near perfect night for Liverpool. Two goals for Curtis Jones, a trademark Mo Salah strike, a thunderbolt from Dominik Szoboszlai and an 18-yard strike by Cody Gakpo. A goal for Darwin Nunez would have been the icing on the Christmas cake, but it was a much improved display by the Uruguayan who terrorised the Hammers defence throughout.
Liverpool absolutely dominated David Moyes’ men from the first whistle to the last. However, it took a wonderful strike from Szoboszlai to open the scoring, Jarell Quansah winning back the ball midway in the opposition half, before the Hungarian struck a diagonal shot into the corner of the West Ham net from 25 yards. It was a lead that Liverpool, playing with greater intensity and purpose than in Sunday’s draw with Manchester United, richly deserved. The only surprise was that it was just 1-0 at half-time.
West Ham were awful in the first half and some improvement in the second half looked inevitable. Yet, if anything, they got worse. They stood off a Liverpool team that, in Jones and Elliot, showed energy and an intent to run and play forward at every opportunity. It was that purpose that led to a first goal of the season from Jones, played in by Nunez down the left. Bearing down on goal, he saw no option but to shoot and did so with supreme accuracy, through the legs of the goalkeeper in front of the Kop.
A third goal soon followed for Liverpool, who looked in the mood to punish a West Ham side that seemed to accept that their abysmal record at Anfield was set in stone. This time it was Gapko shooting from distance and finding the bottom corner, but West Ham briefly rallied. Bowen, a player Liverpool have recently been linked with, finding the net after Quansah, otherwise immaculate at centre half, got too tight, allowing the forward to turn him on the edge of the box and finish with some style.
If Moyes thought his side were back in the tie, Mo Salah, who’d moments earlier missed a sitter, extinguished that flicker of hope. Trent Alexander-Arnold, a second half substitute, found the Egyptian with a defence splitting pass from just outside his own box and the Egyptian ran half the length of the pitch, before he too found the bottom corner in a manner reminiscent of that title-defining game against Man Utd four years ago.
4-1 up with just minutes to go and there was still time for Curtis Jones to complete his brace with the best goal of the night. Picking up the ball near the half-way line, he was given the freedom of Anfield by a bamboozled West Ham, who simply back-tracked and failed to make a challenge as he scored from inside the penalty box.
So Liverpool are just two games away from another Wembley final and will face a rejuvenated Fulham in the semi-final. There’ll be tougher games ahead for Klopp’s men, starting this Saturday against Arsenal when top spot in the Premier League is up for grabs. Kopites meanwhile, will no doubt be making plans for a visit to Wembley in the New Year and a chance of a record breaking tenth League Cup victory.
