Fulham vs Liverpool

A place in the League Cup final is up for grabs as Fulham and Liverpool go head-to-head in the return leg of their semi-final tie at Craven Cottage, with the visitors boasting a 2-1 aggregate lead.

Fulham turned a halftime lead into a defeat in the first leg and failed to recover in the aftermath, going down 1-0 to fellow West London rivals Chelsea in their last Premier League outing. However, a piece of history is up for grabs as a turnaround would see them lift a first piece of major silverware in domestic football. Manager Marco Silva can draw confidence from his side’s imperious home form that has seen the ‘Cottagers’ win five of their last six matches at Craven Cottage, including a 2-1 triumph against Arsenal at the tail-end of 2023. That said, Fulham have gone winless in four encounters against Liverpool (D1, l3) since a shocking 1-0 victory at Anfield in March 2021, while you’d need to go back to May 2011 for their last home win against this opposition.

In the meantime, Liverpool followed up a first-leg comeback with a thumping 4-0 Premier League win at Bournemouth, showing they can pack a punch even without talismanic forward Mohamed Salah. Bidding to reach their first League Cup final since lifting the crown in 2021/22, Jurgen Klopp’s high-flyers head into proceedings amidst a purple patch having lost just one of their last 37 domestic fixtures (W26, D10). Since Klopp’s understrength line-up fell to a 2-1 Europa League defeat to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in mid-December, the ‘Reds’ have won three competitive away games on the trot, with each triumph coming by 2+ goals ‘to nil.’ They don’t need a win here to progress, but a five-match winning streak in the build-up to this trip suggests they may do it anyway.