West Ham Suffer Carabao Cup Repeat

Liverpool knocked West Ham United out of the Carabao Cup at the quarter-final stage by beating them 5-1 at Anfield. On Wednesday night, they made sure that the Hammers would play no further part in this season’s competition, as they beat them by the same scoreline.

Julen Lopetegui made eight changes from the 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea four days earlier, as Łukasz Fabiański, Vladimír Coufal, Jean-Clair Todibo, Aaron Cresswell, Carlos Soler, Tomáš Souček and Danny Ings replaced Alphonse Areola, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Emmerson Palmieri, Guido Rodríguez, Lucas Paquetá and Mohamed Kudus who all dropped to the bench.

The Hammers have a terrible record on this ground and they were put under pressure from the Reds early on here. Having said that, they then had two shots but unfortunately, neither of them troubled home goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.

Lopetegui’s men then had mixed fortunes, as they took the lead through Ings but it was unfortunately ruled out for offside. They were to open the scoring later though, as a mixup in the home sides defence caused panic and the ball went past the Irish stopper off Jarrell Quansah.

The cheers from the away end didn’t last long however, as normal service was soon resumed when the Reds equalised shortly after. Good play involving Coady Gakpo and summer signing Federico Chiesa, resulted in the club’s sole summer signing having his attempt blocked, only for Diogo Jota to give Fabiański no chance, as he headed past him to level the scores.

Liverpool might have turned the game around quickly but fortunately, Gakpo’s shot went narrowly wide.

The home side had turned up the heat and had the best of the half but when referee Andrew Madley blew the half-time whistle, the visitors were fortunate but pleased still to be in with a chance of going through to the next round.

Just three minutes after the game had restarted, the Irons might have been awarded a penalty but Madley decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to give one.

They could have done with that decision going their way as shortly after they were behind. Curtis Jones played in Jota, who raced past Todibo and beat Fabiański again.

Both teams then made changes as both Souček and Ings were replaced by Paquetá and Antonio for West Ham, while Arne Slot withdrew Chiesa, as well as Jota and sent on Alexis Mac Allister and Mohammed Salah.

The changes only seemed to spur Slot’s side on and Fabiański was required to thwart Jones after he had found a way into the area.

It was then West Ham’s turn to the denied, as Kelleher did brilliantly to deal with Soler’s attempt, before Max Kilman had a great chance to turn the ball past the Irishman but he was unable to react quickly enough.

West Ham had their chances throughout the second-half but were unable to take them and they were soon made to pay when Salah got in on the goalscoring act after following up from Connor Bradley’s shot.

Four minutes later, both Mohammed Kudus and Andy Irving were introduced by the Irons’ Head-Coach, as they took the places of Soler and Jarrod Bowen.

It all got too much for Hammers’ midfielder Edson Álvarez who, after being booked earlier in the match, was given a second yellow card for fouling Salah.

Liverpool were dominating by this point and were looking to go further in front but Fabiański prevented Mac Allister from finishing West Ham off.
Slot’s side went even closer closer to another goal but a brilliant clearance from Cresswell meant there was no change in the scoreline.

However minutes later, Liverpool’s place in the fourth-round had been cemented when Gakpo played a great one-two with Darwin Núñez to leave Fabiański helpless once again.

With two minutes of the five that were added on for stoppages left to play, Gakpo added another and West Ham endured yet more pain on the red side of Merseyside.

They are back on the road on Saturday afternoon where they will look to add to their points tally, as they visit The Gtech Community Stadium and face Brentford.