Curtis Jones scored twice and Liverpool booked a record 19th appearance in the League Cup semi-finals with a 5-1 thrashing of West Ham United on Wednesday, claiming the last of four berths.
Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo and talisman Mohamed Salah, who did not enter the game until it was an hour old, also scored in what unravelled into a rout in the final 20 minutes.
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Szoboszlai netted in the 28th minute with a thunderous strike from 20 yards that sailed into the far corner. Jones doubled Liverpool’s lead with his first goal minutes into the second half after a give-and-go with Darwin Nunez, sprinting onto Nunez’s pass to one-time his shot through keeper Alphonse Areola‘s legs.
Gakpo scored from the top of the 18-yard box before Jarrod Bowen pulled one back for the Hammers in the 77th minute. Salah put the game away in the 82nd minute and Jones completed his brace two minutes later, slashing through West Ham’s defence with such ease it had manager David Moyes seething with anger.
West Ham were in for a tough night against the nine-time League Cup champions even before the opening whistle, hampered by illness ahead of the game and having only won once in the cauldron of Anfield in 60 years.