Report and highlights from Liverpool’s crushing of West Ham to advance to the Carabao Cup semifinals; Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, and Curtis Jones all scored twice; Jarrod Bowen gave West Ham a goal.

Liverpool defeated West Ham 5-1 at Anfield thanks to two goals from Curtis Jones, securing a Carabao Cup semifinal matchup with Fulham.

The midfielder added to Dominik Szoboszlai’s stunning long-range goal, Cody Gakpo’s accurate finish, and Mohamed Salah’s breakaway goal to score Liverpool’s second and fifth goals.

Although West Ham managed a consolation goal through Jarrod Bowen, the scoreline showed how one-sided the match was, with Liverpool having 29 shots on goal compared to the opponents’ two.

 

After the victory, Liverpool will play Fulham in the final four of a competition that they have won a record nine times. In the other tie, Middlesbrough will play Chelsea. It is also an ideal prelude to this Saturday’s Premier League match, which is shown live on Sky Sports, against Arsenal.

Player ratings

Liverpool: Kelleher (7), Gomez (7), Quansah (7), Van Dijk (7), Tsimikas (7), Endo (7), Szoboszlai (8), Jones (9), Elliott (8), Gakpo (8), Nunez (8).Subs: Alexander-Arnold (8), Konate (7), Salah (8), Bradley (7), Diaz (6).West Ham: Areola (4), Coufal (5), Ogbonna (4), Mavropanos (5), Johnson (5), Alvarez (5), Soucek (5), Fornals (4), Kudus (5), Benrahma (5), Bowen (7).Subs: Paqueta (6), Ward-Prowse (6), Kehrer (6), Ings (6).

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How Liverpool dominated West Ham

After losing all 20 of David Moyes’s previous trips to Anfield, West Ham gave little indication that the record was going to improve as an entirely one-sided first half set the tone.

Player of the match: Curtis Jones

The first player to threaten was Harvey Elliot, who missed a couple of chances. Szoboszlai could have opened the scoring earlier if he hadn’t slipped when attempting to fire from Darwin Nunez’s cut-back.

His goal came from a significantly more challenging opportunity when, after a fumble close to the halfway line, he latched onto Jarell Quansah’s ball and struck a beautiful shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards out.

Very little came back from West Ham, and they were lucky not to lose further ground when Gakpo headed wide from an Elliot cross just before halftime.

But after the halftime, everything came crashing down. Jones scored his first goal after feeding Nunez with the outside of his boot, then sprinting forward to receive the Uruguayan’s rebound and finishing coolly from a tight angle between Alphonse Areola’s knees.

Because of the comfortable advantage, Klopp was able to make substitutions in order to preserve legs for Saturday’s match against Arsenal. Salah made an early impression by setting up Elliot for a goal, but the midfielder’s effort was saved.

The third goal arrived quickly, though, as more shoddy West Ham defending allowed Ibrahima Konate to weave through midfield and set up Gakpo, whose low effort beat Areola.With their lone significant assault of the match, West Ham secured a consolation goal through a fantastic curling finish from Bowen, who Klopp had lauded as one of his ‘favourite players’ prior to the match.Liverpool, though, wasn’t done.

Areola stopped Joe Gomez from scoring his first goal of the game, and after Nunez had struck the post, Salah dribbled wide to waste a guilt-edged opportunity.The Egyptian made an unexpected mistake, but he quickly made amends by seizing a pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold to race through on goal and finish calmly.

Then, after more appalling defence from the weak visitors, Jones scored the fifth, sending the midfielder charging unchallenged into the box and beating Areola a second time to round off a fun night for Liverpool after their disappointing goalless draw with Manchester United.Jurgen Klopp, the manager of Liverpool, said to Sky Sports: “Obviously, a really, really good game, a game to enjoy, with plenty of top performances.

Top performance from start to finish.” We were, in my opinion, quite challenging to play against tonight. We were observant. We were right on the money right away.”We had excellent football play. They didn’t have a set-piece or a shot on goal, in my opinion, in the first half.

They had three more set-pieces and scored their goal in the second half, but overall, they played pretty well. I’m overjoyed that the boys turned up in this manner tonight.

Curtis is well capable of achieving both goals, particularly the second one. He doesn’t use it enough, yet he has this tempo and quickness.”We tell him that quite a bit, but he did it tonight. That might open his eyes and open up a possibility for me, too.