EFL Cup: Liverpool overcome Chelsea in tense penalty shootout

Liverpool edged their way into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup after a dramatic penalty shootout victory over Chelsea at Anfield.

Neither side registered a shot on target in the opening 40 minutes, but that changed when the visitors were awarded a penalty after Ryan Gravenberch’s rash challenge on Moises Caicedo.

Morgan Rogers stepped up to take the spot kick, and he duly sent Giorgi Mamardashvili the wrong way, but that was far from the end of the action for the first half.

Within two minutes, the Reds had gone down the other end and won their own spot kick after Wesley Fofana’s handball, allowing Cody Gakpo to find the bottom corner from 12 yards.

That set up an enticing second half, one in which Pedro Neto and Rogers were denied at one end, before Mike Penders made a stunning save from Ronald Araujo’s header.

Mamardashvili then made arguably the stop of the night as he got down to his right to tip Marco Palestra’s low shot out for a corner.

With no winner forthcoming over the 90 minutes, penalties were needed to separate the two sides.

The shootout started in perfect fashion until Valentin Barco and Kostas Tsimikas missed.

Sudden death was required, and after Ryan Gravenberch and Emmanuel Emegha had their spot-kicks saved, Liverpool finally prevailed after Wesley Fofana blasted his effort over the bar.