Despite Granit Xhaka’s best efforts, we managed to hold out for 66 minutes with ten men after the Swisser got red carded for a last man challenge of Diego Jota early on in our Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.
The red card meant Rob Holdinio replaced Eddie Nkeitah leaving Lacazette up front on his own.
You may remember that Liverpool lied about their Covid casualties to get the first proper leg called off last week, meaning the second leg will now be at the Emirates next week where we’ll hopefully have a few players back from injury.
This was a game of few chances, and it was Saka who went closest for us with just 20 minutes to go, Alison in the Liverpool goal smothering the effort to keep the game at 0-0.
Liverpool should have won the tie in injury time but sadly Minamino blasted the ball over the crossbar with the goal gaping.
Mikel Arteta was understandably proud of our players:
“We played the game we had to play. I’m expecting now our fans will create an even better atmosphere [in the 2nd leg] than today…”
Jürgen Klopp said after the game:
“I would have preferred to score a goal rather than them getting a red card, but it’s a two-leg game and it’s half-time. I’ve never been at 0-0 at half-time and thought we have no chance…”
The second leg will now take place at our place next week for a chance to play Chelsea in the final. Chelsea battered Tottenham 3-0 on aggregate to book they place in the final on Wednesday night, with Tottenham sadly having two penalties denied by VAR and a goal rightly disallowed for offside.