Liverpool face West Ham at Anfield in the final Quarter-Final tie of 2023-24 Carabao Cup.
Victory would see Liverpool reach the semi-finals for the fourth time under Jurgen Klopp’s management, whilst West Ham are chasing a first appearance in the last four since 2013-14 season.
Team News
Ryan Gravenberch is ruled out for Liverpool after he suffered a hamstring injury during their drab goalless draw against Manchester United.
Ben Doak also won’t feature after he suffered a serious knee injury during an Under-21s match last week.
Alexis Mac Allister (knee) is a doubt but Diogo Jota (muscle), Joel Matip (ACL), Andrew Robertson (shoulder), Stefan Bajcetic (calf) and Thiago Alcantara (hip) remain absent.
West Ham have no fresh injury concerns to report after their Premier League win at home to Wolves, although Michail Antonio remains absent with a knee injury.
When is Kick-Off?
Liverpool host West Ham in a 8pm GMT kick-off at Anfield on Wednesday 20 December, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Liverpool have won three of their five previous League Cup ties against West Ham (W3, L2),, although two games were drawn – in October 1973 and in March 1981 in that season’s Final which both went to replays respectively.
- West Ham have lost each of their two previous away ties against Liverpool at Anfield in this competition (L2).
- Both teams have scored in six of their seven previous League Cup meetings, except for a 1-0 win for Liverpool in October 1973 in a Second Round replay in that season.
- Cody Gakpo has scored in each of Liverpool’s two League Cup ties this season (W2).
- Excluding penalty shootouts, West Ham are unbeaten in three of their last five League Cup ties against top-flight opposition (W2, D1, L2).
Prediction
Following a fairly awful but dominant performance against Man Utd, Liverpool surely can’t perform any worse because they did everything right aside from their end product – which simply lacked composure and quality so I am expecting a serious response here.
West Ham meanwhile were brilliant against Wolves because they controlled the game early on with a clinical end product on counter-attacks, whilst their defence was well-organised and resilient whenever Wolves built waves of pressure in a strong all-round performance.
David Moyes’ Hammers though will likely be doing a lot of defending but if they play like they did on Sunday and Liverpool are again poor, I can see them nicking the win but Liverpool are capable of a strong reaction and I wouldn’t be surprised there is one outcome.
Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 West Ham
Result: Liverpool 5-1 West Ham
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