Carabao Cup: Liverpool gain advantage over Fulham

By Peter Ochieng

Liverpool came back from a goal down to beat Fulham 2-1 at Anfield, in the first leg of the second Carabao Cup semi final on Wednesday night.

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk's error cleared the way for Willian's opening goal in the second half, before the Reds fought back in the second half.

The Reds scored twice within the space of three second-half minutes to turn the encounter around, and take a slender advantage into the Craven Cottage meeting on January 24.

A Curtis Jones deflected strike cancelled out the 19th-minute opener from Willian, before Cody Gakpo's close-range finish secured the win.

Fulham is managed by Marco Silva.

Klopp said the tie is far from over, going into second leg at the Craven Cottage.

"Its not over yet. I didn't expect to have a result where I can say, 'We can book the hotel.' It was clear. Marco [Silva] was probably here before me, will not be overly happy tonight but knows they are still in it. They caused us real problems," said the German tactician.

"They will cause us there even more problems – hopefully we will be then better from the start but we will see that. Its a few days and a game between now and then, so other things in the moment are more important. For tonight we couldn't do really more than win the game. And with the whole story of the game, I'm absolutely happy."

The winner will face either Chelsea or Middlesbrough in this season's Carabao Cup final.

'Boro' beat Chelsea 1-0 in the first leg of their semi final clash on Tuesday night.