Liverpool 1-3 Swansea

Liverpool's defence of the League Cup
came to an end as Brendan Rodgers
suffered an unhappy reunion with
Swansea City in a 3-1 fourth round
defeat at Anfield.
The Merseysiders had won the
competition last season under Kenny
Dalglish to end a six-year trophy
drought but the Scot was then sacked
in the summer and Rodgers was
recruited from Swansea.
It was speculated whether the Welsh
club would struggle without their
former boss, who guided them to 11th
place in the Premier League in their
debut campaign after winning the
Championship play-off final in the
previous term.
But, despite a little wobble, Michael
Laudrup has continued much of the
good work and a win at Anfield, which
came through Chico, Nathan Dyer and
Jonathan de Guzman, while Luis
Suarez headed a consolation, and a
Capital One Cup quarter-final tie at
home to Middlesbrough is another
positive.
Liverpool dominated the opening 10
minutes but failed to test Swansea
goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel, with Joe
Cole, who was starting his first game
since August among nine changes
from the Merseyside derby, seeing a
scuffed long-range shot deflect for a
corner.
Swansea posed their first threat after
quarter-of-an-hour but Dyer failed to
control when behind the home
defence after Jamie Carragher had
misjudged a long ball.
Laudrup had made just four changes
to the team who started last
weekend's defeat by Manchester City
and it showed in a game which
followed a similar pattern to that at the
Etihad Stadium, where Swansea's
confidence grew as the first half
progressed.
As the half-hour mark arrived,
Liverpool were having to chase the ball
and were surrendering territory before
being fortunate to see De Guzman chip
over the crossbar after the hosts had
been caught on the counter-attack.
The warnings had been there for
Liverpool and so it was no surprise
Rodgers' team fell behind in the 34th
minute when Chico, Laudrup's
£2million July signing from Real
Mallorca, headed his first goal for his
club from De Guzman's right-sided
corner.
Having lacked a cutting edge in the first
45 minutes, Liverpool sent on star men
Suarez and captain Steven Gerrard at
half-time as substitute replacements
for ineffective teenager Samed Yesil
and Cole.
The changes gave Rodgers' men a
greater presence and Gerrard saw
Tremmel tip a 25-yard effort on to a
post before Stewart Downing made a
hash of the follow-up in a mess which
epitomised the £20million former
Aston Villa winger's troubled Anfield
career.
But Swansea got their second in the
72nd minute, when Dyer tapped in
Pablo Hernandez's low cross, and
although Suarez's 76th minute header
gave Liverpool motivation, De Guzman
made sure of the win after another
break in injury time.