Liverpool vs Stoke City Preview

January 26, 2016
By: Deke Hardman

Martin Skrtel

Tuesday evening’s League Cup action comes from Anfield where Liverpool face Stoke City in the second leg of the semi-finals.

The Reds, who have won this competition a record eight times, have a slender advantage going in to the tie after a Jordan Ibe strike was enough to separate the sides when they met at the Britannia Stadium a three weeks ago.

Jurgen Klopp’s side go in to the game on the back of a dramatic nine-goal thriller against Norwich City at the weekend, with the Merseyside outfit running out 5-4 winners to keep in touch with those sides currently occupying the European qualification places.

Full-back Jon Flanagan could make his first start since May 2014 with Nathaniel Clyne doubtful, Dejan Lovren not fully fit and Steven Caulker cup tied.

Christian Benteke is favourite to get the first goal of the game at 5.5 (9/2) with Bet Victor, with Roberto Firmino a 6.0 (5/1) chance with the same firm.

The home win is 1.73 (8/11) with Betfred with the visitors as highly priced as the 5.75 (19/4) on offer from 888 Sport. The draw is widely available at 3.9 (29/10).

Mark Hughes’ side lost to high-fliers Leicester City on Saturday afternoon and currently sit one point and two places below their opponents in the league.

Captain Ryan Shawcross is out along with fellow defender Geoff Cameron though Marko Arnautovic and Bojan Krkic could start.

Bojan is 11.0 (10/1) to open the scoring with Betfair, with the same firm offering a price of 12.0 (11/1) for Aranutovic to net first.

Each of the last two meetings between these sides have finished in 1-0 wins for Liverpool with the last two meetings at Anfield finishing the same way.

You can back a 1-0 win for the Reds this time around at 7.0 (6/1) with a variety of firms while as Stoke haven’t scored at Anfield since 1983 you may be tempted to back a home clean sheet at 2.3 (13/10) with Coral.

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