Leicester City 2, Liverpool 0: First Thoughts

Leicester City 2: Okazaki 65’, Slimani 78’
Liverpool 0:

• Pre-match Thought: I’m disappointed that B-B-Benny Woodburn won’t be leading the Reds tonight, but excited to see what Marko Grujic and Dominic Solanke can do (hopefully score lots of goals). But it’s still the early rounds of the League Cup. So. Shit competition. Kill it with fire. Or win it all. One of the two.
• Liverpool concede two corners early and manage to defend them both! Happy days!
• The Reds nearly open the scoring twice within a minute. Andrew Robertson picks out Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on a cross, but the former Arsenal man’s shot is deflected out for a corner. Then Solanke nearly puts away the following corner, but his shot teases the goal line without having the decency to go over.
• Philippe Coutinho back to dribbling past players like they’re training pitch dummies. And he seems to be fully aware of his new teammate Robertson, a marked improvement from the weekend.
• Liverpool showing some good stuff in their build-up, just missing that last pass (and/or finish) so far.
• Twenty-five minutes in and the Reds are down to ten men for the moment as OxChamFamBlud is having problems with his shin guards.
• Oxlade-Chamberlain? Maybe not our corner taker.
• The first shot on target from a set piece and we don’t concede? It’s a miracle. I shall tell my grandchildren about it some day.
• Halftime Thought: Well, no stupid goals conceded yet. That’s half the battle. Of course, we haven’t scored yet either, which is unfortunately the other half. Lots of huffing and puffing from the Redmen, but they have yet to blow the house down. Also, Robertson to Solanke looking like a solid Plan B. Dom is unlucky not to open his Liverpool account so far.
• UNLEASH THE WOODBURN! B-B-Benny comes on for Coutinho.
• Goal. Oh, there it is. Poorly defended set play? You betcha. Foxes lead 1-0.
• Welcome back, Danny Ings! The former Burnley man returns after another lengthy injury lay-off, coming on for Gini Wijnaldum.
• Goal. Well, if the first one was poorly defended, there wasn’t much anyone could do about that one. Slimani directs a cannon of a left-footed shot into the top far corner. Welp, the League Cup was fun (?) while it lasted.
• Final Whistle Thought: If the League Cup is going to be a waste of time and effort (and it is most years), we might as well rip that bandaid off early. Beat Leicester this weekend, and no one will care about this result.

We'll be back shortly to take an in-depth look at everything that happened in today's game with the full recap. Until then, let us know your take on the ups and downs of the match in the comments, and if you haven't already, join the community on the Liverpool Offside, where we'll have full coverage and lively in-game discussion for every match this season.