Liverpool beat Chelsea in tense shootout to reach Carabao Cup quarters

Liverpool knocked out Chelsea on penalties to book their place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals as Xabi Alonso and Jordan Henderson tasted defeat on their return to Anfield.

The tie was, inevitably, settled on a shootout after finishing level in normal time when a Morgan Rogers penalty for the visitors was cancelled out by a Cody Gakpo spot-kick at the other end.

In a tense outcome, Valentin Barco hit the woodwork for Chelsea, but Kostas Tsimikas blazed over for Liverpool and former Reds captain Henderson levelled.

Blues keeper Mike Penders then saved from Ryan Gravenberch, but Giorgi Mamardashvili kept out Emmanuel Emegha’s effort and, after Joe Gomez had scored, Wesley Fofana skied his spot-kick over.

It was Liverpool’s fifth straight success on penalties against Chelsea as the 10-time winners booked an Anfield meeting with Andoni Iraola’s former club Bournemouth.

Both managers made a number of changes from the weekend’s Premier League games, with Iraola making seven from Liverpool’s win over Brighton.

Alonso, who won the Champions League in 2005 as a player with the Reds, made four changes for Chelsea, with Henderson among the starters in the absence of the suspended Cole Palmer and injured Joao Pedro.

Neither goalkeeper had any saves to make in the opening stages but the contest burst into life in the 40th minute when Gravenberch made a poor challenge on Moises Caicedo in the box and referee Darren England awarded the Blues a penalty.

Henderson picked up the ball and was greeted by a chorus of boos before handing over to Rogers, who sent Mamardashvili the wrong way.

But Chelsea’s joy was short-lived as Fofana handled the ball in the box just three minutes later. Cody Gakpo stepped up to send Penders the wrong way for his 11th goal in the competition.

Alonso was forced to make a change before half-time as centre-back Maxence Lacroix was injured and replaced by Levi Colwill.

Just before the hour mark, Iraola turned to his bench as he brought on Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola for Lewis Koumas and James McConnell, who were both booked in the first half.

Liverpool upped the ante and Chelsea remained a threat on the counter-attack, but neither side could find a winner.

Penders, who made an error in his side’s 2-0 home league loss by Spurs on Saturday, made two great saves to keep out Ronald Araujo and Barcola.

At the other end Marco Palestra forced Mamardashvili into a brilliant save, but surprisingly, Alonso didn’t bring Estevao on to try to make a difference.

With no extra time, it went straight to penalties and could have gone either way until Fofana’s miss proved decisive.

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