The Carabao cup match between Liverpool and Arsenal yesterday night to decide who goes into the finals at Wembley with Chelsea haven defeated Tottenham on two legged 3-0 aggregates on Wednesday night in the other semi finals decider ended in a stalemate.
Anfield is not a place where the visiting team find very easy to play but last night Arsenal were able to hold Liverpool 0-0 first leg cup game despite Liverpool's huge advantage as Arsenal were a man down just 24 minutes into the match when Xhaka was shown a straight red card after he made a reckless tackle on Diogo Jota. Liverpool toiled all through the remaining part of the match trying to break down Arsenal resilience defensive formation to no avail. Liverpool maintained most of the ball possession of 75%-25% with 17 shots and no goal. Minamino will have himself to be blamed after a missed opportunity on the 90 minutes mark when he would have slotted in to an open post but missed to give Liverpool that needed goal.
Bukayo saka's two counter attempts which were stopped by Joel Matip and the other by Alisson Becker would have been a different story for the home side had he converted one of those chances.
The absence of the two Liverpool forwards in Mo Salah and Mane who are away to AFCON tournament were evident tonight as Liverpool struggled to find the net.
Mikel arteta's boys will head into the second leg of the semi-final clash with high confidence as Liverpool visit the Emirates Stadium to determine which team progresses to the last stage of the competition. Liverpool without their two forwards forwards in Salah and Mane will have to dig deep to get through this.
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