Villa crush Liverpool kids to reach semis

A young Liverpool side slipped to a first domestic defeat of the season at Aston Villa as the hosts strolled to a 5-0 victory in their Carabao Cup quarter-final clash on Tuesday night.

With the senior squad thousands of miles away in Qatar getting ready for their Club World Cup opener, it was left to the youngest-ever Liverpool starting XI to shock Villa at Villa Park, but after a positive start, two freak goals saw the visitors 2-0 down inside 17 minutes.

Liverpool continued to impress in attack, but at the back, they looked vulnerable, and Jonathan Kodjia capitalised on further slack defending to score his first Villa goal since May to make it three in the 37th minute, before slotting home his second just before half time.

After the break, the youngsters more than held their own, but Wesley added a late fifth as Villa cruised through to the League Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2012/13.

Liverpool named five debutants in a side with an average age of 19 years and 182 days, but Villa also rang the changes, with one of those inclusions, Conor Hourihane, firing a free-kick into the middle in the 14th minute, which evaded everyone and squirmed into the net under the despairing dive of Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.

Sixteen-year-old Harvey Elliott was particularly impressive early on for Liverpool, creating several openings, but Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland denied the Reds with several fine saves.

The visitors’ wastefulness came back to haunt them as Kodja’s double – the first a fine finish after being sent clear by Jota, and his second a smart finish from close range – put Villa out of sight before the interval.

Liverpool continued to have chances in the second half, but could not find a way past Nyland, with Wesley’s first goal in 10 games in stoppage time putting the icing on the cake for Villa. – Eurosport