Leicester City flew out of the blocks against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.With the Foxes having made a slow start to the Premier League season, they had a chance to build on their cup success of the 2020/21 campaign as they made the notoriously difficult trip to Anfield.However, it's no secret that Jurgen Klopp doesn't tend to pile his resources into the Carabao Cup and FA Cup quite in the same way that he does with the Premier League and Champions League.
Liverpool vs Leicester
As such, the prospect of a winning return to Merseyside for Brendan Rodgers suddenly felt far more realistic and even seemed inevitable as his Leicester side raced into a 3-1 lead before the interval.
Jamie Vardy proved for the umpteenth time that he's simply lethal against the 'big six' clubs with a pair of fine finishes past Caoimhin Kelleher within the first 13 minutes.
And although Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain swiftly got Liverpool back into the tie with a ruthless strike, James Maddison restored Leicester's two-goal lead with a truly venomous effort on 31 minutes.
Tottenham 2-2 Liverpool Match Reaction (Football Terrace)
Maddison's scintillating strike
Bearing down on the Kop end from fully 30 yards out, Maddison's blistering shot always looked destined for the back of the net despite its central trajectory with the power baffling Kelleher
The Liverpool number two was left clutching at thin air as one of the Carabao Cup goals of the season, which you can check out down below, flew past his grasps within the blink of an eye.
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you strike a football.
Kelleher bamboozled by the strike
While it might not have found a home in either one of the top corners, Maddison proved that if you hit the sweet spot of the ball perfectly enough, then accuracy won't stop you from finding the net.
Admittedly, you have to wonder whether or not Alisson Becker would have deflected Maddison's strike over the bar, but we can't sit here and say that Kelleher had dropped a clanger either.
The simple fact of the matter is that you're only ever a one-in-one-hundred strike away from baffling even the finest of shot-stoppers - and there's no denying that Kelleher has bags of talent.
But for all his ability and potential, the Liverpool 'keeper was almost picking the ball out of his net for the fourth time in the first-half as Joe Gomez's error nearly gifted Vardy a quick-fire hat-trick.
Although the Leicester forward hit the post on that occasion, Liverpool still found themselves trailing 3-1 and facing a cup exit just 45 minutes into their quarter-final clash.
However, true to Liverpool's never-say-die attitude under Klopp, they turned things around to win on penalties after Diogo Jota and Takumi Minamino ensured that the tie finished 3-3 after 90 minutes.
