Liverpool beat Fulham 2-1 in the League Cup semi-final first leg at Anfield despite letting the Londoners take the lead.Brazilian veteran Willian had given Marco Silva’s team an unexpected lead inside the opening 20 minutes, and the Cottagers appeared very disciplined and organised at the back. Liverpool struggled to create a real chance, but Curtis Jones levelled on 68 minuted with a fortunate deflected shot. And mere three minutes later, Cody Gakpo finished off a nice team move to complete the comeback. It was perhaps slightly harsh on Fulham, who did great to fight for 89 minutes at the most challenging of trips, but the Reds’ quality shone through once more, giving Jurgen Klopp’s side a slight advantage ahead of the second leg on 24 January.The match saw the hosts testing the waters early on when Jones shot was saved by Bernd Leno. However, it was Fulham who broke the deadlock with their first chance. Willian scored a clinical goal after weaving his way through the box and firing past Caoimhin Kelleher following a mistake by Virgil van Dijk. This allowed Andreas Pereira to tee up his compatriot.1️⃣0️⃣ Assists for Darwin Nunez this season now. No Liverpool player has more 🫡 pic.twitter.com/KQXjcqzsJH— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) January 10, 2024 Klopp became increasingly frustrated as Van Dijk was shown a harsh yellow card for colliding with Pereira. The German was left fuming again when referee David Coote did not play advantage after a foul on Alexis Mac Allister. Joe Gomez had a chance to restore parity on his 200th Liverpool appearance but shot wide from distance just seconds before halftime.The second half saw Liverpool dominating the game, with Ryan Gravenberch firing wide after weaving his way into a shooting position. Antonee Robinson made a fine block to keep out Diogo Jota’s effort. Klopp introduced both Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez in place of Gravenberch and Harvey Elliott in a bid to break down a stubborn Fulham defence. Marco Silva’s side were looking for a second goal on the counter-attack, but Bobby Decordova-Reid went for glory down the right-hand side despite Pereira being unmarked inside the box.##NAJAVA_MECA_7788984##Liverpool managed to score the equalizer which they felt they deserved, but in hugely unfortunate circumstances for Fulham. Jones took aim from the edge of the area and saw his strike take a huge deflection off Tosin Adarabioyo before beating Leno. Liverpool’s attacking prowess came to the fore for their second moments later, as Jota and Darwin combined brilliantly to tee up Gakpo for a clinical finish at the near post. This wiped out Silva’s men’s advantage in a mere four minutes.This proved to be a telling blow and another ominous sign to Liverpool’s rivals, as Klopp’s men secured another victory without being at their free-flowing best. The Reds are now unbeaten in their last seven games across all competitions since a 2-1 dead-rubber UEFA Europa League defeat to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise last month. Fulham, on the other hand, suffered another near-miss on Merseyside. They had pushed Liverpool close after losing this Premier League fixture 4-3 on 3 December.
