Having had two matches postponed, this was Leicester’s first game in ten days thanks to a combination of Covid-19 cases and unidentified illness in the squad. They have also fought with a similar issue to what Liverpool had last year, with their senior centre-backs missing through injury.
Caglar Söyüncü recovered in time to continue at centre-back, but with Jonny Evans and Wesley Fofana out, Wilfred Ndidi was moved back into defence. Brendan Rodgers made three changes to the side that thrashed Newcastle, as Timothy Castagne, Harvey Barnes and Evans all missed out, replaced by Ricardo Pereira, Boubakary Samaré and Jamie Vardy. Leicester set up in a 4-3-1-2 shape.
Rarely taking domestic cups seriously, Jürgen Klopp put out a weakened team, with teenager Tyler Morton the sole player continuing on from the draw with Tottenham at the weekend. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Leicester took an early lead by countering Liverpool’s counter. Kostas Tsimikas was pushing forward on the ball only for Samaré to intercept his pass inside and play a one-two with Pereira to take Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain out of the game. With Jordan Henderson still retreating, Samaré was able to knock the ball into space to Morton’s right and pass into James Maddison, who Conor Bradley left in space to turn and slide a through ball into Vardy. Joe Gomez had stepped back to track the run of Vardy but Billy Koumetio didn’t drop off with him – the Frenchman also coming in too narrow with Patson Daka down the right side. With Liverpool’s defensive line a mess, Vardy received the ball in behind Koumetio and fired the ball past Caoimhin Kelleher.
Minutes later, they doubled their lead. Neco Williams found himself doubled up on out wide and lost the ball to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Gomez stepped up to play an offside trap but Koumetio dropped off, allowing Dewsbury-Hall to play a pass in behind for Daka to run onto. Tsimikas raced back but lost out to Vardy, who attacked the box and finished Daka’s squared ball.
A lack of defensive organisation between teenagers who have barely played with the seniors wasn’t exactly much of a shock and it ensured Liverpool went behind quickly, however outside of these key incidents Liverpool didn’t look too bad. Rodgers had presumably packed the midfield to ensure Liverpool couldn’t outnumber them there, with four central men matching up against Liverpool’s midfield three and Roberto Firmino dropping back to join them, however this left space out wide for Liverpool to use.
When Liverpool passed out to the full-backs, Youri Tielemans or Dewsbury-Hall were expected to move out to the flank to close them down, leaving space inside for a now free Liverpool man. At one point, Bradley also took advantage of Leicester shifting across to meet him to switch play out to Tsimikas in space on the left.
Rather than waste time trying to play through the centre, where Leicester were matching them man-for-man, Liverpool quickly looked to overload the backline, with Henderson pushing forward to join the attack and Firmino remaining forward, ensuring Leicester’s backline couldn’t come across to cover for a teammate without leaving a Liverpool attacker free.
This was on full display as Liverpool pulled a goal back soon after Leicester got their second. Takumi Minamino dropped back into midfield, drawing three players towards him, then flicked the ball out to Tsimikas, who had isolated Pereira by the touchline, with Ndidi unable to come across to cover without leaving Firmino free. The Greek took a touch and knocked the ball over the full-back’s head, attacking the space behind him, although his cross was overhit. Williams nodded the ball back inside, looping over Söyüncü as the Turk was drawn out of position following Henderson, but Ndidi was there to stop Firmino getting a free shot at goal. The Brazilian managed to hold up the ball before laying it off to Oxlade-Chamberlain to rifle home from the edge of the area.
Leicester increased their lead again with a wonderstrike by Maddison though. Bradley gave the ball away in his own half and Oxlade-Chamberlain came across to tackle, only for the ball to ricochet back into the path of Maddison, who used the available space to fire the ball into the net from distance.
At half-time, Klopp made a triple substitution, removing the three teenagers Bradley, Morton and Koumetio for more senior equivalents Diogo Jota, James Milner and Ibrahima Konaté, with Williams moving back into his natural right-back spot. Liverpool had obviously been the worse team in the first half, however it was only because they were making individual errors that gave away easy goals, as these young players weren’t ready to be playing against players of the quality of Vardy. In terms of the overall pattern of the game, Liverpool had actually had the greater control over the match, and so by tightening up by introducing these higher quality senior players, they were less likely to make these individual errors, meaning Leicester had little to threaten Liverpool with.
After 15 minutes of the second half, Rodgers made a double substitution. He had already replaced Daka with Kelechi Iheanacho in attack, but now he brought on Ryan Bertrand and Jannik Vestergaard as centre-backs for Söyüncü and Dewsbury-Hall, switching to a 3-5-2 to conserve their lead.
Leicester had aimed to protect their lead by adding defenders but in reality it did the opposite. It stopped their backline from getting overloaded yet Vestergaard and Bertrand failed to acclimatise quickly to the match, causing havoc with Leicester’s defensive organisation, while Maddison was moved back into the midfield three, but kept being drawn forward and wouldn’t retreat back into position quickly. Leicester had opened up their midfield in order to bolster the defence, but the additions to the defence were making mistakes that meant Leicester were weaker in both areas. Liverpool responded by withdrawing Henderson for Naby Keïta, offering more creativity in the now more open midfield, allowing them to progress through the centre.
Liverpool cut into that lead minutes after the change as Konaté slipped a pass through to Jota behind Soumaré. The Portuguese’s touch was poor, with Ndidi quickly out to meet him, but the Nigerian’s tackle rebounded back off of Jota, then substitute wing-back Marc Albrighton’s attempted clearance rebounded back off Ndidi again, falling to Firmino. The Brazilian flicked the ball to Minamino, who slipped it through to Jota to finish, making a run into the gap Ndidi had left to step out and meet him. If Liverpool could feel unlucky at the bounce of the ball for Maddison’s goal, then it was balanced out here by the numerous awkward deflections that kept the ball in attack, allowing Jota to mercilessly exploit the small gap that had opened up.
Deep into injury time, Milner whipped in a cross from deep, which Ndidi tried to head away, only to miss his header. The ball fell to Minamino, who took a touch and half-volleyed the ball just inside the far post to take the match to penalties, which Liverpool duly won.
The comeback wasn’t exactly the hardest thing in the world to see coming. In terms of collective play, Leicester were the inferior throughout the match, but had run up a lead because they had the superior individual quality. Once Liverpool evened up that individual quality, they were able to press home their collective superiority and ultimately emerge victorious.
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