Liverpool may be disappointed to come out with a 1-1 draw against Chelsea in the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final. Liverpool were outstanding and deserved to score more. Raheem Sterling scored an excellent goal in the second-half for the Reds.
GK – Simon Mignolet: 6.8/10. Despite having little to do due to Liverpool’s sheer dominance, Mignolet was good with his feet and alert when called upon. He was ready to rush out of his goal early in the second-half and prevent Diego Costa being through on goal.
RCB – Emre Can: 7.3/10. Can overall had a very good game. However, there was one mistake in the first-half which may overshadow a good performance. He swung a leg out at Eden Hazard and Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot. Despite this, his head didn’t go down and he coped with Hazard and Costa very well.
CB – Martin Skrtel: 7.9/10. Skrtel was pure quality tonight. He had the hard job of marking Diego Costa and effectively had him in his pocket! Costa didn’t have a sniff, really. This was testament to how good Skrtel was.
LCB – Mamadou Sakho: 7.4/10. Sakho was very good again tonight. His passing is constantly the key to starting attacks. He always does the same ‘slide-rule’ pass into Philippe Coutinho and Liverpool are off. Excellent.
RWB – Lazar Markovic: 7.1/10. I thought Markovic had a very good first-half, but tailed off slightly in the second-half. This could be down to the amount of minutes he has clocked in recent matches.
LWB – Alberto Moreno: 7.4/10. Moreno was the catalyst to a few Liverpool chances. Especially in the second-half as the game speed quickened. Moreno often found himself in loads of space down the left hand side, and Mourinho had to bring on Azpilicueta to man-mark the Spaniard.
CM – Jordan Henderson: 7.5/10. Henderson was brilliant again tonight. His form recently has been nothing short of exceptional. The likely future captain’s energy and passing were his most impressive aspects of his game tonight. He often found Moreno with good diagonal balls to the left hand side to try and create something. He also found Raheem Sterling with a firm pass for his goal.
CM – Lucas Leiva: 8.2/10. Man of the match for me. Lucas was phenomenal tonight. I lost count of the amount of times he broke up play in the middle of the field, key interceptions. His forward passing is effectively an out ball from the defence. His heading is magnificent for a midfielder, too. Quality from the midfielder.
AM – Steven Gerrard: 7.1/10. Gerrard was good tonight. He had a couple of efforts when he was really unlucky. One from 35 yards out which was excellently saved by Thibaut Courtois. The other, a left footed effort that curled onto the post. Gerrard seemed disappointed with his own performance when he was substituted in the second-half. He shouldn’t be, though.
AM – Philippe Coutinho: 8.1/10. Narrowly missing out on the man of the match, Phil Coutinho. His form at the moment is sensational. At the moment that’s the only word to describe him. He made the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League, Nemanja Matic look silly at times. He just skipped past him like he wasn’t there! Magic from the #10.
ST – Raheem Sterling: 8.1/10. Again, narrowly missing out on the man of the match. Sterling, playing in a pretty unfamiliar position, against one of the best defensive lines in Europe. In the second-half, he caused havoc. They simply could cope. His goal showed that. He picked the ball up from 35 yards out and ran through their defence before slotting past Courtois with his weaker foot. Unbelievable performance from the 20 year-old.
