Southampton 1 - 6 Liverpool

I'm going to have to put this here seeing as you forgot Avinalaff

Liverpool League Cup rout of Southampton capped by Divock Origi treble

Southampton 1 - 6 Liverpool

Sadio Mane 1
 
Away team scorers
Daniel Sturridge 25
Daniel Sturridge 29
Divock Origi 45
Divock Origi 68
Jordon Ibe 73
Divock Origi 86

Thursday 3 December 2015 08.48 GMT Last modified on Thursday 3 December 2015 15.50 GMT

It has taken Jürgen Klopp less than eight weeks to restore all the verve that, only two seasons ago, almost propelled Liverpool to the Premier League title. This was a scorching of Southampton, a display of counterattacking football so ruthless that it was hard not to feel for Ronald Koeman, shoulders hunched as he slumped on the sidelines, while the visitors plundered mercilessly.

Their first six shots on target yielded reward to subject the hosts to their worst home defeat in 56 years. A quarter-final eagerly anticipated on the south coast ended as a rout. Daniel Sturridge, on his first start under the new manager, converted two slickly constructed chances just before the half-hour. Divock Origi, the Belgian who had arrived here straining to impress while he remained without a Liverpool goal to his name, helped himself to a hat-trick. Jordon Ibe also struck while Adam Lallana, heckled throughout, enjoyed his most productive and effective game at the tip of the visitors’ diamond.

Klopp talked himself through the splendour of his team’s attacking display after the match as if desperate to relive their dominance, a smile plastered across his face as, blow by blow, he recalled each incisive move that had cut the Saints to shreds. “We may have to wait a long time to enjoy a football match again as much as we did tonight,” he warned. The German could only chuckle to himself as he relayed the “perfect” pass from Emre Can for Sturridge’s second, or the “super goals” that illuminated the last half-hour when Koeman had gone for broke and poured all his attacking resources on to the pitch.

Stoke City await in the two-legged semi-finals. “Whose idea was this?” asked Klopp, his complaint about the fixture logjam more than the identity of the opponents. That is about as dissonant as he is at present. He actually had the gall to bemoan his side’s start, when Dusan Tadic had embarrassed Connor Randall on his second Liverpool appearance and Ryan Bertrand appeared at the winger’s side to supply Sadio Mané with the opener after barely 41 seconds. Yet that was a blip. A rare moment of Southampton joy. Once Liverpool had mustered some rhythm of their own, they were irrepressible.

Sturridge made the initial mark. The England striker, watched by Roy Hodgson in the stands, had appeared laboured at first, ring-rusty and marginally off the pace on his first start since early October, yet he was merely adjusting his radar and, such was the high quality of the delivery, any forward might have thrived. Joe Allen supplied his first with an exquisite pass from the right for Sturridge to collect in the centre. A heavy first touch appeared to take him too wide but he recovered his poise to tease space from a hesitant Steven Caulker. The finish, skimmed left-footed across Maarten Stekelenburg and into the far corner, was a study in accuracy.

His would be a first–half double, though Can’s involvement in the second should not go underestimated. Lallana did well to claim possession of an awkwardly bouncing ball and laid off for the German at his side. Jordy Clasie, a snarler of a midfielder, darted in to intercept, only for Can to turn inside with ease and clip a sumptuous diagonal pass with the outside of his right boot beyond Caulker and Cédric. Sturridge, drifting untracked through the defenders, finished first-time, guiding the ball instinctively through Stekelenburg’s legs. “I said to him after the game, ‘Now I know what everybody is talking about,’” said Klopp of his striker.

There was to be no Southampton revival from then on in. Everything that followed was brutal. Origi’s movement had been impressive already, his manager having attempted to simplify his style – “He has wanted to show everything in the short times he’s played,” said Klopp – to eke more from the 20-year-old Belgian. It was his faint touch at the near post which turned Alberto Moreno’s crunched attempt beyond Stekelenburg for a first goal for his new club. His second was far more emphatic, a shot thumped from just inside the area and high beyond the Dutch goalkeeper’s grasp from Ibe’s slid pass.

By the time he nodded in the substitute Brad Smith’s fine centre to complete a first hat-trick since Lille hammered Rennes in March, Southampton had long since wilted. “Everyone wanted Divock before Liverpool bought him but he has to be patient,” added Klopp. “He kept everything simple: easy passes, finishes, movement. Even he did get some good deliveries …” Ibe’s accurate finish from Moreno’s centre had been sandwiched almost unnoticed between the striker’s celebrations.

This was that kind of occasion when the majesty of Liverpool’s counterattacking took the breath away. The only real save Stekelenburg mustered denied Can in stoppage time. Now Klopp, still publicly wary of what awaits at Newcastle United on Sunday, will go into the new year with his team’s conviction fuelled by thoughts of Wembley. The standard set at Manchester City late last month has been maintained. When they play like this, his team appear untouchable.