Liverpool are into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals. That is the point. The rest is detail.
At Anfield, a 1-1 draw with Chelsea was settled the hard way, with Liverpool winning the shootout 6-5 after goals from Morgan Rogers and Cody Gakpo, both from the penalty spot before half-time. It was not polished throughout, but cup football rarely cares for polish. It asks whether you survive. Liverpool did.
Andoni Iraola made that clear afterwards. “Yeah, at the end in the cup competitions what matters is that you are in the next round and you are in the draw. Lucky for us finishing the right side of the penalty shootout. I finish pleased because the players have done a very big effort today and at least we get the reward of being in the quarter-finals.”
That is the correct reading of the night. Liverpool were stretched, they rotated heavily and they still found a way through against strong opposition. There is no need to romanticise it. The effort was real, the reward matters, and the schedule will not get any kinder.
Liverpool togetherness proving decisive
The more revealing point from Iraola was not about the penalties. It was about the mood around the side. Liverpool have had uneven moments this season, but at home there is now a visible sense of connection between team and crowd. Managers talk about energy and belief because they know how quickly both can disappear. Right now, Liverpool have them.
Iraola said: “I feel it and I’m very happy to feel it because I think it’s very important. We need to feel what we are feeling now, the players are feeling. They are feeling the support of the ones in the stands and I think when we are all together, we create better atmospheres. Even starting losing, there was ‘Let’s go, come on.’ A lot of the players have given us very good help and now it’s the third game at home where we finish with good feelings. And we have another big one on Sunday and let’s try to finish this four in a row that we had at home in the best way.”
That matters more than any neat tactical talking point. When a side concedes first and the stadium stays with them, it changes the game. Liverpool responded, stayed in it, then held their nerve. Cup ties are often decided by that basic level of emotional control.
Carabao Cup draw gives Liverpool a familiar problem
The quarter-final now brings Bournemouth to Anfield, which adds an obvious layer to the tie. Iraola knows the club well and, by his own admission, would have preferred anyone else.
“Honestly, I was talking before the draw and I said, ‘The only team I don’t want is Bournemouth…’ For me, it’s special. They know me very well, they are playing very well lately, in a good moment. But it is what it is. We haven’t been very lucky with the draws, we have played Spurs and Chelsea already and now Bournemouth. That is going to be obviously special for me. But we have to earn the right to be in the semi-finals and I hope we can do it here at home again.”
He is right about the draw. It has not been generous. Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, now Bournemouth, there is nothing soft about that route. If Liverpool reach the last four, they will have done it properly.
Squad rotation and Trey Nyoni impact
Iraola made seven changes and, again, there was no appetite to dress it up as some grand masterplan. Rotation is necessity, not vanity. Liverpool are playing too often to do anything else.
“A little bit of everything. When you do the line-ups and the squads, you are not thinking, ‘In case it goes to penalties, I will leave the ones who shoot the penalties for the end.’ No, you are trying to balance the team. We are changing a lot of the players because we need to change. We did seven changes today but even in the Champions League, which are very important games, we are doing always four or five changes. Obviously when I did the last subs, when I put Alexis [Mac Allister] and Alex [Isak] especially, it starts to be in your head, ‘OK, in case of need, they also are the best ones probably you can put.’”
One of the beneficiaries was Trey Nyoni, and Iraola was direct in his assessment. “I think he has done very well. Really well. It’s good for the young players especially to live these experiences in cup competitions, where if you lose you are out. We have been losing and then the draw. Then they haven’t been there in the penalty shootout but they lived the feelings. They played under pressure against a very good team. And Trey has finished physically in a good place, so well done, yes.”
No overstatement required. Liverpool are through, the squad is contributing, and the togetherness Iraola wants is starting to look real.