Arne Slot’s out-of-form side face a team they’ve failed to beat in two meetings this season when Oliver Glasner’s Eagles visit Anfield. Look ahead to the game with our Liverpool vs Crystal Palace prediction and preview.
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace: The Key Stats
The Opta supercomputer makes Liverpool favourites to reach the EFL Cup quarter-finals, giving them a 59% chance of beating Crystal Palace inside 90 minutes.
Liverpool have progressed from 12 of their last 14 EFL Cup ties against Premier League opposition, only losing to Manchester City in the 2022-23 fourth round and Newcastle United in last season’s final.
The Reds haven’t won any of their past three home meetings with Palace, last going four without victory against a team from outside the ‘Big Six’ at Anfield versus Aston Villa, from 2012 to 2014.
As it turned out, Liverpool’s 5-1 rout of Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Champions League was only a brief moment of respite as the Reds fell to a fourth successive Premier League defeat on Saturday to leave their title defence hanging by a thread.
Arne Slot’s men suffered a 3-2 loss at Brentford, struggling to deal with long balls and long throws as Keith Andrews’ Bees put in their best performance of the season at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Brentford v LFC xG
Liverpool have now lost as many Premier League games this season (four) as they did in the whole of last term, and the Opta supercomputer rates their title chances at just 11.4%, compared to 66.4% for Arsenal and 14.4% for Manchester City.
Seven points behind Arsenal, the Reds may already be looking for alternative routes to silverware this term, and one of those could be in the EFL Cup.
On Wednesday, they face Crystal Palace at Anfield with a quarter-final place at stake, though they may have wished a different ball came out of the pot when the draw was made.
Palace have already overcome Liverpool twice this season, triumphing on penalties at Wembley following a 2-2 draw in the Community Shield in August, before claiming a 2-1 win when the teams met at Selhurst Park in the Premier League in September, with Eddie Nketiah‘s late strike inflicting Liverpool’s first loss of the season.
The Reds have only won two of their eight games against Palace in all competitions since the start of 2022-23 (D4 L2), and just one of five since Glasner joined the Eagles in February 2024.
Palace, who lost 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday, tasted glory in the FA Cup last year and will have high hopes of another run to Wembley.
If they opt to name their strongest lineup, forward Ismaïla Sarr has plenty of form for troubling Liverpool, scoring five goals in eight games against the Reds in all competitions – only against Aston Villa (eight) has he scored more.
Palace have been eliminated from six of their last eight fourth-round ties in the EFL Cup, though they did beat Aston Villa 2-1 at this stage last season. The Eagles have only made the quarter-final stage in back-to-back campaigns once, in 1991-92 and 1992-93.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have progressed from 12 of their last 14 EFL Cup ties against Premier League opponents, with the exceptions coming against Man City in the 2022-23 fourth round and versus Newcastle United in last season’s final.
Including Wednesday’s game, 10 of the Reds’ last 11 ties in the competition have been against a fellow top-flight side, with the only other game coming in the last round when they hosted Southampton, who were in the Premier League last season.
Slot will hope to have Alexander Isak back after a groin injury caused him to sit out the defeat at Brentford, while there are also question marks over the availability of Curtis Jones and Ryan Gravenberch. Alisson, Jeremie Frimpong and Giovanni Leoni are all sidelined.
Isak has scored in four of his last six EFL Cup games, the most different games a player has scored in since the start of last season’s competition. That run started with a fourth-round goal against Chelsea in 2024-25, while his only goal for Liverpool so far came in the 2-1 win over Southampton in the third round.
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace Head-to-Head
Liverpool’s two wins against Crystal Palace since the start of 2022-23 is their joint-fewest against any team they have faced four or more times in that period, also winning twice against Manchester United and Arsenal.
At Anfield, meanwhile, Liverpool are winless in their last three meetings with Palace, drawing two and losing one.
They last went four home matches without victory against a team from outside of the ‘Big Six’ between 2012 and 2014 (Aston Villa – two draws, two defeats).
This will be the fifth EFL Cup meeting between Palace and Liverpool, with each side progressing from two of the previous four – the most recent came in the 2005-06 third round, with the then-Championship Eagles winning 2-1 at Selhurst Park.
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace Prediction
Liverpool are the Opta supercomputer’s favourites for victory, winning Wednesday’s match inside 90 minutes in 59% of our pre-match simulations.
Palace’s win probability stands at 19.6%, while there is a 21.4% chance of the game finishing level and going to penalties, as was the case when they met in the Community Shield.
Liverpool vs Crystal Palace prediction EFL Cup
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 10,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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