Liverpool stages second‑half recovery to beat Fulham 2‑1 in first leg of English League Cup semis
Liverpool staged a second‐half fightback and scored twice in a three‐minute span to beat Ful‐ ham 2‐1 in the first leg of the Eng‐ lish League Cup semifinals on Wednesday.
With second‐tier Middles‐ brough defeating Chelsea 1‐0 on Tuesday in the first of the semifi‐ nals, another upset looked on when Fulham took the lead at An‐ field through Willian in the 19th minute after Virgil van Dijk failed to make a clearing header.
Liverpool's attacking threat was limited in the first half without Trent Alexander‐Arnold, who is injured, and Mohamed Salah, who is away with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations.
A double‐substitution in the 55th saw Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo enter and it proved decisive, with Núñez having a hand in both of Liverpool's goals and Gakpo scoring one of them.
After Núñez's layoff, Curtis Jones equalized with a shot that took a vicious deflection off the back of Tosin Adarabioyo and looped into the corner past stranded goalkeeper Bernd Leno in the 68th.
Núñez then crossed for Gakpo to sweep home a finish in the 71st, handing Liverpool the ad‐ vantage ahead of the second leg at Fulham's Craven Cottage on Jan. 24. The Reds could have been taking a bigger lead to London but Leno saved brilliantly at the feet of Núñez in the 89th.
Fulham was competing in the semifinals for the first time in its 144‐year history, while Liverpool — a record nine‐time winner of the competition — was looking to reach the final for a record‐ex‐ tending 14th time.
Lazio beat Roma, Atalanta beat AC Milan to reach Italian Cup semifinals
Lazio advanced to the Italian Cup semifinals by beating Roma 1‐0 on Wednesday in a tense derby that saw three players sent off.
Two Roma players were given red cards and key forward Paulo Dybala came off at halftime with yet another problem in his long list of muscular injuries. The World Cup winner from Ar‐ gentina will be a doubt for Sun‐ day's Serie A match at AC Milan, where Roma coach José Mour‐ inho will also be absent while serving a suspension after being sent off last weekend.
Lazio will face either Juventus or Frosinone in the two‐legged semifinals in April. Juventus hosts Frosinone in the quarterfi‐ nals on Thursday.
The other semifinal pits Fiorentina against Atalanta, who met at San Siro later yesterday.
Fiorentina beat Bologna on penalties on Tuesday.
After a drab first half at the Sta‐ dio Olimpico, Mattia Zaccagni converted a penalty for Lazio in the 51st minute after Taty Castel‐ lanos had been fouled by Roma defender Dean Huijsen.
Lazio forward Pedro was sent off in the sixth minute of stop‐ page time after receiving two yel‐ low cards in two minutes. Romelu Lukaku almost equalized for Roma moments later but his acrobatic, overhead kick went over the bar.
Roma forward Sardar Azmoun later was given a straight red card for essentially slapping Lazio midfielder Nicolò Rovella on the back of the head, while teammate Gianluca Mancini got sent off for dissent after the final whistle.
Griezmann scores against Madrid in Super Cup to become Atletico's all‑time scorer with 174 goals
Antoine Griezmann scored against Real Madrid in the semi‐ final of the Spanish Super Cup on Wednesday to surpass Luis Aragonés as Atletico Madrid's all‐ time top scorer with 174 goals.
Griezmann scored the mile‐ stone goal with a right‐footed shot from outside the area in the 37th minute to even the match at 2‐2. Aragonés reached his mark in 370 matches, while Griezmann needed 368 games with the club.
Griezmann went scoreless in three straight games since tying Aragonés with a pair of goals against Getafe in the Spanish league in December.
The France international is in his eight season with Atletico. His first stint with the club was from 2014‐19 before joining Barcelona for what were two mostly disappointing seasons. He returned to Atletico in 2021 on a one‐year loan that was extended into the 2022‐23 season.